Officially, more than 56 per cent of ration cards are fake in the state, believed to have been issued by low-rank officials to cultivate benefits. The state food and civil supplies department is looking at institutions like GAIN, a Swiss foundation created at a special session of United Nations General Assembly on Children in 2002, to ensure the supply of nutritious foods to the locals. As a solution to bribery at...

Tired, bored? Next time you reach for that can of energy drink, pause. For, the food safety authority cautions against excessive use. Energy drinks of various brands that have flooded the market and are available over the counter — in cigarette shops, pubs and even departmental stores — are the new manna for the youth. Precisely why the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has now proposed a...

Food security is currently being much discussed in the context of the proposed National Food Security Bill. Food security is the consistent access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food so that the basic dietary needs are met to ensure an individual can lead a healthy life. Food activists justifiably argue that the proposed 25 kg rice per person per month is insufficient and that it be given only to families...

Good nutrition is the nexus point where food security, public health and environmental protection meet.  As world leaders in Copenhagen struggle for an ambitious deal, let us not forget that it is the future of our children that is at stake. Hurricanes, floods, heat-waves and droughts wreak havoc when they strike, but in the desolation they leave behind it’s relatively easy to reconstruct a road or a house. A human...

Government nutrition scheme has no place for necessary animal protein The ICDS programme launched in the 1970s was based on the results of extensive surveys which identified rampant child under-nutrition in India. Using the weight-for-age and height-for-age criteria, only 10 per cent children under five could be classified normal. And 15-20 per cent were underweight even when they were short. The situation has not improved in the past 35 years...