IIT Gandhinagar - First 5-star institution in the country conferred with the 'Eat Right Campus Award’

“Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments.” – Bethenny Frankel, American reality television personality, entrepreneur and author.

Constituted of several food categories and items, a balanced diet forms the core of a healthy body. WHO describes it as a healthy diet which varies depending on gender, age, lifestyle, physical activity, cultural context, local availability of foods and dietary customs, however, its basic constitution remains the same – adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, fats, salts and sugars.

Numerous studies done over several years indicate that consumption of healthy food protects against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, heart diseases, dementia (cognitive decline), stroke and cancer, to name a few.

The objective was to promote healthier and safer eating practices in colleges and universities across India. A year later, IIT Gandhinagar - Indian Institute of Technology (IITGN) became the first 5-star institution in the country to be awarded the 'Eat Right Campus Award' during the commemoration of the first World Food Safety Day on June 7^th, 2019 as declared by the United Nations General Assembly. On behalf of the institute, it's Founding Director, Prof Sudhir K Jain received the award in FDA Bhawan, New Delhi.

Presently, all the food outlets at IIT Gandhinagar are registered under the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat. The involved staff is trained by the Food Safety Awareness and Training Organization (FSATO). The audits are done by DNV GL Business Assurance India Private Limited, a third-party agency. The checklist of this year’s award consisted of five parameters which included a healthy and balanced diet, compliance to food safety and hygiene, food waste management, local and seasonal food promotions, and awareness of food safety and healthy diets in and around the campus.

According to Shri Krishan Birhman (Assistant Registrar, Student Affairs) and Viral Shah (Superintendent, Student Affairs), “Regular training sessions are organised for the food handlers. Laboratory tests and visits by Hostel Facilities and Management Committee (HFMC) are conducted for all the edible items to ensure food quality and hygiene, from time to time – be it raw fruits and vegetables, cooked food, packaged products or ingredients like cooking oil, milk and flour. If not found in compliance with the prescribed regulations, a heavy fine is charged from the concerned outlet.”

The Student Mess Council headed by the Mess Secretary is in charge of updating the contents of all the campus food outlets regularly and deciding the dining hall menu every month. It includes a healthy diet and is modified accordingly to include various local and seasonal fruits, vegetables and such other items. In order to supplement the nutritional food with delicious flavors, different sweet dishes constitute an integral part of the mess menu everyday of the week. “Generally, the food quality in educational institutes of India is not satisfactory.

Apart from the vegetarian platter, one will get a fair share of non-vegetarian and egg-based food items at regular intervals within a week. Various competitions are organised to spread awareness among the campus janta, regarding the importance of a balanced diet and minimal food wastage,” said Mayank Kamle, Mess Secretary 2019-20 and B. Tech 3^rd year Chemical Engineering student.

To create a sense of responsibility among the IITGN family members, the amount of daily food wastage is displayed everyday outside the dining halls. Proper kitchen-waste management waste is strongly emphasised so as to avoid health risks posed by insects and rodents. An in-house biogas plant at the campus converts the food waste into manure. The institute has partnered with the Biodiesel Association of India (BDAI) for the collection of used cooking oil from its eateries. The leftover excess food is given to the Robinhood Army, a volunteer-based organisation, which collects and distributes it to the needy and poor. These practices make it a zero-waste campus.

“As of now, we circulate online feedback forms among the Institute community members. But, discussions are underway about installing QR codes in front of all the shops and mess. This will make the process of providing suggestions and registering complaints (if any) very easy, in terms of food quality and hygiene,” expressed Anjali Kumar, former Mess Secretary (2018-19).

Since the time of its establishment, the food culture at IITGN has seen many changes. Dr. Sivapriya Kirubakaran, mess warden and assistant professor in Biological Engineering and Chemistry, stated that the campus has the largest diversity of food, item-wise as well as region-wise, among all other colleges and universities of the country.

“Grooming of workers is a priority. We ensure that they abide by the cleanliness norms such as the use of gloves and head caps while preparing and serving food, added Naresh Bahadur Bisht, manager of one of the dining halls.

The Founding Director of IIT Gandhinagar, Prof Sudhir K Jain believes that the Eat-Right award will encourage other educational institutes to promote healthy and hygienic food practices for the well-being of their students, faculty and staff. He said, “IITGN is a students’ first campus and nutritious and safe diet is one of the core requirements for ensuring the health and betterment of students as well as the entire community.” Since its inception, all the people associated with this Institute have strived very hard towards achieving eat-right standards and now it is time to maintain and enhance the same. “We are thankful to FSSAI for providing their guidance and support which paved way for us to develop an eat-right environment for our students, faculty and staff which is the need of the hour, not only for us but also for all the institutes PAN-India,” he added further.

“Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.” – Hippocrates, a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles and a renowned figure in the history of medicine.

About the Author:

An avid writer by passion and a researcher by education, Apeksha Srivastava works as a Senior Project Associate in External Communications at IIT Gandhinagar. She has pursued her M.Tech (2016-18) in Biological Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar, during which she was an Institute Gold Medalist. She was also an Institute Silver Medalist at Amity University, Lucknow, from where she completed her B.Tech in Biotechnology.