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FSSAI suggests voluntary declaration of calories on restaurant menus
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Tuesday, 14 February, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Pushkar Oak, Mumbai
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In a bid to make consumers aware of what they eat and to uphold the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) Serve Safe initiative (which is one of its ten initiatives), the apex regulator wants hotels and restaurants to voluntarily declare the calories in each item on the menu.
FSSAI had several rounds of meetings with the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) in this regard.
“One of the federation’s representatives is on the FSSAI panel. As of now, meetings and discussions are on. Yet there are no profound steps taken in this regard,” said Kamlesh Barot, director, Vie Hospitality Pvt Ltd.
“Rather, associations are working to launch a pilot with 200 members from the metro cities to dive into the generation of data on calories in the dishes and also other nutritional information required, so that it will be easy to have further debate over it,” he added.
Barot said, “At the meeting, FSSAI advised the restaurants to adapt to a healthy menu and also to include the calories assigned to the respective delicacy.”
“The federation held that some of the hotels adapted to healthy menus with the display of the calorie intake for the consumers,” he added.
“It was also noted that very few restaurants undergo this practice which is subjected to the customers they receive,” Barot stated.
Western regulators like the United States Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) have provisions to declare calories on the menu.
Adarsh Shetty, president, Indian Hotel And Restaurant Association (AHAR), said, “If the regulator makes such regulations mandatory, it will impact small restaurants and eateries to a large extent.”
“We think that consumers can order variants of salads, juices or other healthy options. People are aware about foods which are healthy. They have ample choice,” he added.
“I think we should not just adapt and look at the western laws to address concerns in India. We should develop them here instead,” Shetty stated.
Barot held that any decision in this regard would only be taken after studying the permutations and combinations.
He added that the results would be put to debate in the regulator-industry meetings on this subject.
In the initial phase, the regulator is planning to consider the declaration of calories a voluntary effort by the hotels and restaurants, and will play a vital role in promoting the Serve Safe.
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