25 per cent of world's hungry stay in India: Expert

Mysuru: Recalling that 25 per cent of the hungry and malnourished population of the world was in India, and it was home to  60 per cent of women and children who were anaemic, Prof Chindi Vasudevappa, Vice Chancellor of NIFTEM, on Wednesday called for creating more awareness on eating right in the country. 

The V-C , who was speaking at the inaugural event of the four day  International Food Convention- IFCON 2018, said even 50 per cent of the farmers who were migrating to urban areas, were not eating the right food. "With change in lifestyle, eating right matters," he stressed, suggesting that contract based farming should be encouraged to ensure that farmers grew the food the country needed. 

"There are 2.8 million food technology industries in India, but only 35 to 40 per cent are in the organised sector. While the quality of food exported is monitored, there is no adequate check on the quality of food within the country. There are only around 400 food quality analysts in the country. We need more if are to have control over our lifestyle and the kind of food supplied," he added.

 Speaking to reporters, Mr Pawan Kumar Agarwal, FSSAI CEO, said while some  temples like Tirupati had reservations to begin with about FSSAI measures to promote safety of prasadams, now they were also covered by its licensing regime.

Mr Agarwal revealed that  street food vendors would not only receive training in hygiene, but also be covered under a project called the  "Theme street food hub," which involved identifying a cluster of them and giving them time to improve their hygienic practices. 

Over 2000 food experts, technologists, scientists and students have converged on Mysuru for a hosted by the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India) in association with CSIR, CFTRI, DRDO and DFRL.