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Health ministry to launch app determining nutritional value of raw food
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Friday, 20 January, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The ministry of health and family welfare is working on an mobile application that would allow people to know the nutritional value of raw and processed food.
At a conference, where the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, released the nutritional database of nearly 586 food companies, health and family welfare minister J P Nadda said that in about two months’ time, the app, on which the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and NIN are working, would be available for use.
“After 1971, this is the first expansive food composition data to be released, with foods from across the country being analysed. India now joins the elite league of nations having its own complete food composition database,” he added.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, secretary, Department of Health Research, and director general, ICMR, stated that the database contained information about food composition from six distinct zones of the country and information about the current health-related topics, including heavy metals.
She added that this information would be very helpful in the labelling of nutrition and people would be able to guide themselves to make informed choices with respect to food.
Ashish Bahuguna, chairman, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said that the apex food regulator would use this database to analyse the gap in nutrition for its food fortification programme, adding that it would also help it to make better guidelines for labelling norms.
J P Meena, special secretary, ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI), said that his ministry was also working with several institutions to create such innovations that would help in retaining the nutrition in processed foods.
The new Indian Food Composition Tables (IFCT), a reference book for all kinds of nutritional evaluations (including clinical practices for analysing the diets of patients and devising special diets for them).
This comprehensive nutrient data bank will cater to the needs of researchers and policymakers for alleviating nutritional deficiency and associated disorders in the country.
The Indian national food sampling and analysis programme was initiated by ICMR in 2011 in order to bring out a totally new Indian Food Composition Tables as an authoritative source of food composition data in India, wherein key foods were prioritised and analysed for a comprehensive set of nutrients at NIN.
IFCT, popularly known as Nutritive Value of Indian Foods (NVIF), contains data which was sampled, analysed and categorised on a massive scale after a gap of 45 years.
The data enables to monitor food and nutrient availability in the country. It serves as a handbook for dietitians, planners, medical and health professionals and students of nutrition.
It forms a basis for the development of dietary guidelines, framing of food regulations and food safety, consumer education and educational materials.
The food industry uses this data for labelling and nutrient claims, product development and reformulation. IFCT guides in planning of institutional diets, sports nutrition and food service industry.
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