Hoshiarpur- As per the orders of Hon’ble Commissioner Food & Drug Administration Punjab Mr. Dilraj Singh IAS and Deputy Commissioner Hoshiarpur Mrs. Ashika Jain and under the guidelines of Civil Surgeon Hoshiarpur Dr. Pawan Kumar Shagotra, District Health Officer Dr. Jatinder Kumar and Food Safety Team Hoshiarpur organized Food Safety Awareness Camp at P.M. Shri Senior Secondary School, Baghpur under “Ajj To Thoda Ghatt – Sahi Khao Abhiyan”.
The Food Safety Team comprised of Food Safety Officer Munish Sodhi and LT Rajwinder Kaur. In this camp, students and staff were given information about reducing oil and sugar intake in daily food.
During the camp, District Health Officer Dr. Jatinder Bhatia showed the ‘Oil Board’ and ‘Sugar Board’ to the students and explained the importance of proper intake. Through this, it was shown how much sugar and fat is present in things like samosas, pakoras, chocolates, gulab jamuns, soft drinks and flavored juices. Therefore, it is important that they develop the habit of reading and understanding the amount of sugar and fat written on the packaging while choosing food.
He said that obesity and many other diseases related to sugar and oil are increasing among adults and children in India. It is necessary to reduce the intake of sugar and oil and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Excess oil and sugar are harmful to health and their excessive consumption can cause problems like obesity, diabetes, tooth decay and heart disease. Dr. Bhatia said that it is important to start reducing salt and sugar in food from today itself to stay healthy.
After this, the nutritional value of food in the mid-day meal was checked and they were also made aware about standard hygiene practices and precautions to be taken during the rainy season. Students participated enthusiastically in the awareness camp and gained information through question-answer. The Health Department has planned to run such awareness campaigns in other schools as well.