The junk is being taken out of children's lives across the nation. The Centre is set to ban the sale of junk food in school canteens and around school premises across the country soon. In its final guidelines submitted to the Delhi High Court on Wednesday on regulating the sale of junk food and aerated drinks in and around schools, the Centre's expert committee has said it wants to restrict the availability of junk food items such chips, fries, colas, chocolates, etc. inside schools and up to within 50 m of their boundaries.

It was in September last year that the high court had directed a 13-member expert committee to review and modify the Centre's draft guidelines on the issue.

The guidelines that the committee finalised earlier this week mention that schools must regulate the sale of junk food items such as burgers, pizzas, chips, samosas and colas to rein in obesity and hypertension among children. Schools have also been asked to discourage binge eating among students and develop a canteen policy to provide nutritious, wholesome food in schools.

The revised and final guidelines focus on "nutrition levels, health standards and on regulating such consumption in accordance with a child's nutritional and health needs. Among other things, the guidelines prescribe a uniform policy that includes labeling food items with reference to their ingredients, calorie contents and nutrition levels in three categories viz. Red, Yellow and Green with Red including popular HFSS (high fat, sugar and salt) food items, yellow consisting of some baked goods or dairy items whose ingredients can be tweaked to increase their nutrition levels and green consisting of healthy fresh food such as fruits, fresh juices, salads, etc," said committee head Sunita Narain, from the Centre for Science and Environment.

"The idea here is not to deny a child any food item entirely. During an earlier hearing, the High Court too had observed that no food is without some nutritional value and a child cannot be made to give up packaged or fried food entirely. However, the committee is keen on regulating such consumption in accordance with a child's nutritional and health needs," Narain said.

The guidelines are meant to be implemented across the country and hence, have a section dedicated to varied needs of each state in the country. For instance, as one of the measures to restrict access to junk food for students in Delhi, the committee recommends that school management authorities in the Capital must ideally "put restrictions on the movement of students outside the school and hence, naturally restrict the availability of junk food irrespective of whether such stalls or vendors exist near schools or not".

In August last year, the Centre had submitted its draft guidelines to regulate the sale of junk food in and around schools across the country. However, at the time, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the All India Food Processors' Association, had opposed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) draft guidelines, saying that private agency AC Nielsen could not be allowed to frame guidelines that would affect the entire nation. AC Nielsen ORG-MARG had been assigned the work of framing the guidelines by FSSAI. Responding to the same, Additional Solicitor General Rajeev Mehra, appearing for the Centre had told the court that the Centre already had an expert committee in place that could review the same. Following the court's permission and its suggestion, public health and industry experts were then roped in. The committee decided to take the draft guidelines made by AC Nielsen ORG-MARG as a "starting point".

"The problem of obesity among children is on the rise mainly due to reckless dietary habits. Based on a study conducted by the health ministry and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, we can say that junk food items such as burgers, pizzas, chips, fries, samosas, biscuits etc. sold rampantly in school and college canteens contain no vitamins or proteins and are instead high on salt, sugar and saturated fat. The committee largely wants to restrict the access of junk food to children in and around schools. Not much can be left to the canteens or to the children assuming that they will make the right choices. Instead, we wish to restrict the sale of unhealthy food," a committee member said.

The high court is to take cognisance of the report in the coming week.