Junk food comes to court notice

Worried at the health hazards posed by junk food in schools across the country, the Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Union government to prepare a roadmap to permanently ban it from canteens.

The court made it very clear that it was not looking for “lip service” but “concrete steps” to ensure that kids were safe from this menace.

“We do not need lip service but we want the government to take effective steps to ensure that the sale and supply of junk food near schools and other educational institutes is banned,” said a bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul after going through an affidavit filed by the Centre in July this year.

Parents can take heart from the high court’s intervention since the Union health and family welfare ministry (MoHFW) has already sought guidelines to be framed to serve health food like dal, roti and sprouts in schools and colleges instead of greasy burgers and pizzas.

In fact the court also considered fizzy drinks like colas while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) and sought a detailed action-taken report from the Union government by November 2.

Clearly, the court was unhappy with the vague details furnished by the Union government.

“We are not satisfied with the affidavit you have filed. You have merely written to various state governments informing them about the harmful effects of consumption of junk foods.

But what are the effective steps you have taken to prevent the sale of junk food?” the bench asked.    

Junk food is not defined under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act but the MoHFW said that any food that has poor nutritional value is considered unhealthy.

“Any food item that has empty calories and is responsible for obesity, cavity, diabetes and heart diseases cannot be considered good for the consumption of children,” the ministry stated in July.

However, besides this cursory statement, the MoHFW was not able to give major suggestions or recommendations to keep junk food out of school and college canteens.

But its affidavit did underscore the fact that there were numerous studies which have indicated correlation between consumption of food with empty calories and chronic degenerative diseases with hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular problems and glucose intolerance.

The PIL was filed by Rahul Verma and lawyer Rakesh Prabhakar on behalf of the NGO Uday Foundation. “It is high time, we change the way kids eat in schools,” Prabhakar told DNA.

Ironically, as Prabhakar observed, while children were taught in classrooms about good nutrition, they continued to make junk food available to them. It looks like the drive for good health will get a major boost from the high court.