FDA Directs 50-Metre Junk Food Buffer Around J&K Schools

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Srinagar- The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Jammu and Kashmir, has directed the School Education Department to ensure strict implementation of food safety regulations in all government and private schools, including a ban on the sale, marketing and advertising of junk food within school premises and within 50 metres of school gates.

In a communication to the Directors of School Education, the FDA said the Food Safety and Standards (Safe Food and Balanced Diets for Children in School) Regulations, 2020, must be effectively implemented to ensure that schoolchildren have access to safe, hygienic and nutritionally balanced food.

ADVERTISEMENT

Under the regulations, schools are required to ensure that food products high in saturated fat, trans-fat, added sugar or sodium are not sold or offered on their premises.

The restrictions also apply to an area extending 50 metres in every direction from school gates, where the sale, marketing or advertising of such food products to schoolchildren is prohibited.

ADVERTISEMENT

The FDA further directed that food services operating within school campuses must be run by food business operators registered or licensed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and must comply with prescribed sanitary and hygienic requirements.

Read Also Kashmir's Child Health Crisis Kashmir's New Hunger

Such food facilities are also required to maintain Food Safety Display Boards and have Food Safety Supervisors wherever applicable.

The regulations also require schools to designate meal times to promote healthy eating habits and provide safe drinking water free of cost to all students.

School authorities, including principals and headmasters, along with the bodies responsible for managing the institutions, have been tasked with regularly inspecting food premises and monitoring the quality, safety and hygiene of food served to students.

The FDA said schools may also appoint a Health and Wellness Ambassador or constitute a Health and Wellness Team to serve as a nodal mechanism for monitoring the availability of safe, balanced and hygienic food.

The administration has accordingly called upon the School Education Department and school authorities across Jammu and Kashmir to ensure strict compliance with the food safety regulations.

MENAFN27082026000215011059ID1111589700