RESTAURANT TYPE FOODS FOR SCHOOLS AND ANGANWADIS-A TN BONANZA!

India is considered one of the front line countries in applied nutrition programs benefiting millions of kids and vulnerable women through its schools and Anganwadis, spread all over the country. While school feeding programs are intended mainly to attract kids from low income families as a part of universal literacy policy of the nation, Anganwadis and other special feeding centers serve to augment the nutritional level of daily diets which are considered not satisfactory as per the health norms set by experts. After experimenting with instant food products which do not need any further cooking in the school premises for a number of years, it was Tamil Nadu which started the "freshly cooked" meals program for providing hot foods using locally procured raw material. Several other states followed this example and the responsibility was shared by the government agencies and many women based voluntary organizations. The ISKON organization is reported to be the largest agency to day in India in terms of number of meals served through organized central kitchens and well managed distribution logistics. Recent announcement made in Chennai by the CM of TN provides interesting reading regarding the ambitious goals of the government in making the beneficiaries extremely happy by providing the much needed variety for serving such meals. Here is a take on this new development.

"Thirteen varieties of rice and four types of egg 'masala' will soon enrich the plates of students benefiting under the nutritious noon-meal scheme of the State government, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told the Assembly on Friday. Making a suo motu statement, she said the purpose was to break the monotony in the menu under the scheme introduced by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramchandran 30 years ago and to make them palatable. The government consulted well-known chefs and nutrition experts on this issue and 'channa biriyanai' and pepper egg were served on an experimental basis in a school in Saidapet and the Andhanallur panchayat union school in Chief Minister's Srirangam constituency. The students liked it and the chefs demonstrated 13 varieties of rice and four types of egg 'masala.' The Chief Minister said the new scheme would be introduced in one taluk in every district and depending on the feedback, this would be extended to other areas gradually.
There would be one set of menu for the first and third weeks of a month and another set for the second and fourth week.
The students would be served vegetable 'biriyani' and pepper powder egg on first and third Mondays; 'channa-pulav' and tomato 'masala' on Tuesdays; tomato rice and pepper egg on Wednesdays; rice, sambar and boiled egg on Thursdays and curry leaf rice or green (keerai) rice, egg masala and roasted potato on Fridays. The menu of second and fourth Mondays would be 'sambar' rice, onion and tomato egg 'masala'; mealmaker and vegetable mixed rice and pepper egg on Tuesdays; tamarind rice and tomato egg 'masala' on Wednesdays; lemon rice, tomato egg 'masala' and 'sundal' on Thursdays and rice, sambar, boiled egg and roasted potato on Fridays. The Chief Minister said the government would also provide a variety of dishes to the children attached to 'anganwadis' in the State. Special attention would be made to the children, considering their requirements and digestive capacity. The children would get tomato rice and boiled egg on Mondays; mixed rice and 'sundal' on Tuesdays; vegetable 'pulav' and boiled egg on Wednesdays; lemon rice and boiled egg on Thursdays; 'dhal' rice and boiled potato on Fridays and mixed rice on Saturdays and Sundays.Ms. Jayalalithaa said the new menu would increase the number of students attending school and improve their nutritional requirement"

Processed foods versus freshly cooked foods debate seems to have finally ended with most states opting for the latter though this option is fraught with very high degree of risks. Limited resources available for providing the needs of the children further restricts any choice, leaving the government with very little elbow room in designing the meals. Besides the activities such as material procurement, storage, fuel for cooking, actual cooking, serving the meals, cleaning the utensils etc all become additional burden/responsibilities for the school staff and teaching efficiency can be adversely affected. The risks of food poisoning is also very high requiring ever vigilant overseeing of the operation. Also debatable is the assumption that all children will eat the food and possibility of wastage also is high. Inclusion of egg is another uncertain move which may have some unforeseen reaction from vegetarian population among the kids. Ideally it is preferable that ready to serve foods are used for such massive operations and here is where the ingenuity of food scientists becomes crucial. The fresh food option now being used in many states may not be the last word on the subject and one has to wait and see the experience arising out of the present decision.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

RESTAURANT FOODS AND SAFETY-IRELAND SHOWS THE WAY

While safety of foods from the organized processing industry receives critical attention, the restaurant sector usually gets away with hardly any monitoring system or deterrent mode working in many developing countries including India. The mere logistics of putting in place an effective safety enforcement regime is nightmarish when it is realized that majority of catering players are in the unorganized sector with a moribund vigilance system under the local administration with neither adequate personnel nor the much needed critical laboratory infrastructure. The recent announcement by the FSSAI that hotels in New Delhi would be graded for the guidance of tourists expected to converge in the metropolis during the forth coming Commonwealth Games, is supposed to project a good impression about the country. How far its intention will be translated into ground reality remains to be seen. Contrast this "impotency" with the rigorous action taken against safety violations in a country like Ireland which can be discerned from the following report.

"The FSAI today announced that it served four closure orders and four prohibition orders on food businesses for breaches of food-safety legislation during April. A prohibition order is a temporary order that can be applied if a business is selling or storing food not fit for human consumption. A closure order meanwhile means that a business represents a very real risk to public health in respect to food safety. It cannot be lifted until action required by safety officers is taken to correct the risk. Closure orders were served on:

• Mother India restaurant, The Square, Roscommon
• Kitchen of The Central Bar, Market Square, Roscommon
• 'Honeybear' Ice cream van, Reg No. W471EOB, Shore Front, Buncrana, Donegal
• Roscommon Golf Club Restaurant, Golf Links Road, Roscommon

Prohibition orders were served on:

• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govinda's, 4 Aungier St., Dublin 2
• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govinda's restaurant, 18 Merrion Row, Dublin 2
• Iskon Ireland Ltd, trading as Govindas, 83 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1
• Real Brasil grocery, Unit 2, Castle Street, Roscommon

A ROSCOMMON golf-club restaurant, three restaurants run by the Hare Krishna movement and the luxury Harvey's Point Hotel in Co Donegal feature in the latest list of food safety breaches published by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The owner of the four-star Harvey's Point Hotel, Marc Gysling, was fined €500 and ordered to pay costs of almost €1,200 after being convicted of food hygiene breaches in Donegal District Court last month. The hotel kitchen failed to reach required standards when visited by inspectors on several occasions last year, the court heard. The hotel said an outside contractor had been hired to set a hygiene standard but this had not been completely effective".

Can Indian consumers expect a transformation from the present decadent system to a more effective enforcement regime in the foreseeable future? Conceded that India is a big country and it requires enormous resources to mount a vigilance system that can do a reasonably good job in safety monitoring but more than any thing else, there has to be a will, commitment and dedication on the part of agencies vested with authority to carry out this task. It is unlikely that such human quality can be found amongst the people who are "managing" the food safety portfolio now.

V.H.POTTY

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BAN ON HYDROGENATED FATS-ALLEGED DESCRIMINATION

It is by now well established that trans fats are not desirable in foods that are consumed regularly as they are implicated in many health disorders afflicting mankind. Though this information was known for many years, no firm action was forthcoming to prevent manufacture of foods containing this dangerous artifact, though some restrictions have been imposed on maximum permissible limits. It goes to the credit of one of the states in the US which has put in place a ban on serving foods containing trans fats effective January 1, 2010. "That's a mighty resolution because California is the first state to stop restaurants from using trans fats as shortening to fry food in because trans fats raise your bad cholesterol, LDL, and lower your good cholesterol, HDL. Trans fats are notorious for the role they play in opening the pathway for hardening of the arteries by inflammation, increasing the number of strokes, angina, and coronary heart disease. Trans fats are those hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils you find in baked goods and other foods". One of the arguments against the ban was that restaurant foods constitute only 25% of the meals consumed by the families, leaving then free to use trans fat containing coking fats at home. There does not seem to be any restriction in place against manufacture or sale of hydrogenated fats in the country. Catalytic hydrogenation of liquid oils at high temperatures generate trans fats and the favorable functional characteristics of these fats make them attractive to many users. Also under question is the leeway shown to bakery industry which is permitted to use hydrogenated fats/shortenings till 2011. Probably non-availability of suitable substitutes to the existing shortenings could have persuaded the law makers to give a longer time to the bakery industry. Solid fractions of Palm oil and Coconut oil and inter esterification of liquid oils do give products similar to bakery shortenings and bakery industry must switch over to these fats in the best interest of their consumers. V.H.POTTY http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/ http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

'FATTY' CONCERN-AUSTRALIAN WORRIES!

Restaurant foods are raising new worries amongst consumer activists and nutrition experts in Australia because of the frying oils they are using regularly in preparing various foods. Already high levels of fat in these products which give high sensory satisfaction are implicated in uncontrolled obesity epidemic and added to this presence of trans fatty acids in some of the foods is of grave concern. Restaurant sector has some how escaped the scrutiny of food authorities and except in some places, the nutritional quality of the foods served is a matter of conjecture.

"Of particular concern to the foundation is the amount of fat consumed outside the home, with restaurants immune from food labelling laws. We've become so particular in the supermarket, but when we eat out we have no idea what our food is being cooked in. There is a lack of transparency about what's going into a lot of our food. While some companies, such as McDonald's, Unilever and Goodman Field, have voluntarily switched to healthier oils, an increase in the amount of cheap imported palm oil, from 113,000 tonnes in 2003 to 130,000 tonnes in 2007, showed the industry as a whole was resisting change".

While restaurants can be made to display in broader terms the nutritional profile of the preparations served by them, how far this will help the consumer is a moot question. After all "eating out" is considered a change for the whole family and taste guides the selection more than the composition. The report quoted above indicts palm oil as a cheap one but castigating it as a non-healthy oil is not acceptable and the bias against this oil from Asia is apparent!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com