Press Note

Corporates support FSSAI to mobilize citizens for Safe and

Nutritious Food
Over 100 participants from the countrys corporate sector, mainly food businesses came
out in full support of FSSAI in its efforts to provide safe and nutritious food to the
citizens. In a workshop organized by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
(FSSAI) on social mobilization for Safe and Nutritious Food: A way of life, corporates
that included both Indian food companies like Dabur and Britannia to multinationals such
as Nestle, Mondelez, Pepsi, there was a general consensus that investing in food safety
and nutrition is smart, right and sustainable thing to do. A perceptible and fundamental
shift in corporates thinking about social impact on investment on food safety and
nutrition was noted during eth workshop.
The workshop was organized under the broad theme of Corporates for Safe and
Nutritious Food, focused on building a coalition of corporates and design specific
interventions that corporates can take up. It received an overwhelming response with over
100 representatives of corporates participating in the event.
In his keynote address, Dr Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for
Improvement of Nutrition (GAIN) pointed out that it is in the interest of businesses to
invest in food safety and nutrition. It is smart, right and sustainable thing to do, he
commented. It is sustainable and helps in building peoples trust in corporates and CEOs.
For scaling up the efforts, Dr Haddad said, the corporates should work as a sector and
should involve social goals in their corporate strategies.
Shri Santosh Desai, Managing Director, Future Brands, described how there has been a
fundamental shift in the thinking of corporates about Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). Earlier it was seen as charity, and then it became defensive mechanism. Now, it is
marked as the beginning among the corporates to be pro-active in implementing idea of
integrating social impact and profit.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Siraj Chaudhry, Chairman, Cargill (India), stressed the
importance of consumer education to make them aware about food safety and nutrition.
He explained the manner in which the corporates can integrate simple messages in their
mainstream marketing campaigns.
On this occasion, an online citizen community on Food Safety was formally launched
by Chairman and CEO, Local Circles. Shri Sachin Taparia informed that in just five days
of its initial launch, 30,000 people have already registered as members. Citizens
interested in Food safety can join the community by visiting http://bit.ly/foodsafety-
comunity
ITC announced its plans to reach to 10,000 schools and children promoting food safety.
ITC will be driving the Safe & Nutritious food at School initiative by incorporating the
messages related to this large Initiative through Indias No.1 notebook Classmate as well
as building a programme which ensures continuous engagement with the children over a
substantial period of time. The program will have multiple elements to engage with
Children and Schools through interactive training modules, IVR led quiz, on ground
theme based activities, city and national level finals & many more events to sustain the
buzz & participation which will be aimed at building and enhancing awareness on
various aspects of health and nutrition.
In his closing remarks, Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Chairperson, FSSAI, conveyed his deep
appreciation over the corporates overwhelming response to the workshop and urged
them to get actively involved in the efforts to spread the message of food safety and
nutrition and hoped that this is just the beginning of long-term engagement between
FSSAI and food businesses for social mobilization.
Earlier, in his welcoming the corporates, Shri Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, elaborated
on various initiatives of FSSAI for spreading the message of food safety and nutrition at
different places like home, schools, work places and eating places etc. He pointed out that
the workshop was unique in the way it helped marketing heads of various companies to
sit together with FSSAI to identify the ways that they can work towards social cause
rather than competing with each-other.
The participants had detailed discussions in nine groups where they deliberated in detail
on how to scale up the initiatives and spread the message. Each group presented specific
action plan, which will be rolled out soon pan India. Activities taken up by corporates
would be measured on a matrix that would soon be developed and FSSAI is planning to
institute safe and nutritious food awards for corporates based on the same.
Representatives of Ministries of Urban Development and Health and Family Welfare
were also present to explore possibility of developing convergence model for social
mobilization around food safety hygiene and nutrition across the country. On this
occasion, FSSAI also launched its new website, a water portal and food safety connect
for an integrated complaint redressal system.