Efforts of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in providing nutritious meals to the students have earned five of its primary schools the certificate of ‘Eat Right Schools’ from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) while an automated community kitchen is soon to be operationalised in Ward 58 to provide hygienic nutritional food to the pupils.
A KMC official confirmed that the FSSAI has certified five KMC free primary schools as ‘Eat Right Schools’. These are: Dharmadas Trust Model Junior High School, Baishnabghata Patuli KMCP School (Day), Rafi Ahmed Kidwai KMCP School, Radha Kumud Mukherjee Road KMCP School and Baishnabghata Patuli KMCP School (Morning). It was learnt that the recognition came from the FSSAI based on the food sample survey and documentation done by the KMC’s Food Cell.
An FSSAI official said that its food safety officers were instructed to ask schools to get registered under its ‘Eat Right Campus’ programme so it can keep a check on whether hygiene and quality parameters are being followed during the preparation of the meal.
“If a school has outsourced the work to some private agencies then we are asking our food safety officers to speak to the schools so that these private agencies get registered under the programme. This will help us in carrying out our enforcement work. We are doing this presently,” said the official.
As to how this process works, schools need to get themselves registered online through the portal www.fssai.gov.in/eatrightschool. A monitoring and evaluation takes place using an ‘Eat Right Matrix’, among other initiatives. Finally, the school is awarded an ‘Eat Right’ certificate based on their performances. Further, a new community kitchen will soon start at 19/1 Seal Lane in Ward 58. An automated kitchen will be functioning which will cater hygienic nutritional food to the students of KMCP Schools and Shishu Siksha Kendras (SSKs). A memorandum of understanding was signed between the KMC’s Education department and Lions Club
International in December 2023 for the same.
Meanwhile, sources said that soon the SS Hogg Market (New Market), under KMC, will be declared ‘Eat Right Fruits and Vegetable Market’. An audit of the market has already been conducted. The Kalikapur Purbachal Bazar has already been accorded
this status.