Taking the Food Safety Concept to Schools
A New Initiative by CII Institute of Quality

“Schools need not have Cafeterias to implement the Food Safe Schools Program”

From right: Ms Gargi Mitra, CII WB State Head, Mr P K Sen, Senior Advise, CII and Dr Indrani Ghose, Senior Counsellor CII-IQ	Dr Indrani Ghose conducting the programme…

CII Institute of Quality in partnership with CII Eastern Region created yet another landmark by organizing a One Day Interactive Session with School Principals, Administrators, Teachers, Food Service Managers and other stakeholders to promote the concept of ‘Food Safe Schools Program’ in Kolkata on 20 April. Breaking the myth that a program on Food Safety in Schools is applicable only when the School has a Cafeteria, Dr Indrani Ghose, Principal Counsellor, CII Institute of Quality emphasized the growing importance of implementing Food Safety in Schools for ensuring a Food Safe School Environment and creating a well informed future generation with India as a Safe Food Destination. Against this backdrop, CII launched this new initiative with the objective of sensitizing all stakeholders in a school environment for enabling them to develop their own “Safe Schools Plans’ to successfully fight back food borne illness.

CII has plans to scale this movement further by subsequently offering to help implement key strategies like conducting Need Assessment Planning among interested schools to assess the existing policies and practices and identifying and prioritizing gaps. This in turn would help create an action plan specific to the schools requirement, said Dr Ghose. The facilitation package includes assistance on developing Food Safety policies and procedures followed by assessment, follow up action, hands on training and establishing continual improvement processes in phases.

Earlier this year, CII Institute of Quality, with the support of the Department of Social Welfare Government of Tamil Nadu conducted a 8 days capacity building programme for 35 Noon-Meal Organisers in Government Schools from 10 zones of Chennai for ensuring food Safety in Noon Meals.

CII is confident that the tried and tested successful Cluster approach model, which received rave reviews in the Food Processing and Non Food sectors, would also be effective in the context of the ‘Food Safe Schools Program’. The cluster members would help provide appropriate resources, tools and technical assistance strategies to prevent food borne illness.

The Action Guide for creating a Food Safe School Environment would constitute adopting a school wide approach covering all school events and activities, allergen management, grade wise coverage of Food Safety information and education, Crisis Management in case of Outbreaks, establishing Communication systems and instituting a periodic review system for continual assessment and improvement. A relatively small investment in time by schools is bound to pay big dividends in improved food safety, student well being, teamwork and leadership, reduced absenteeism and continual updation on knowledge and skills related to the subject. It would also help groom students better to play the crucial role in spreading awareness on Food Safety and growing up as adults capable of preventing Food Borne illness.

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