Initiative aims at reducing lifestyle diseases, revive traditional food
AMN / Dehradun
Food and snacks prepared as per authentic Ayurvedic recipes will reach markets across the country soon, which will help sharply reduce the burden of lifestyle diseases such as malnutrition, diabetes and hypertension.
This was revealed by members of the high-level committee set up to finalise the modalities for the production and marketing of Ayurvedic food and snacks during a plenary session on “Ayurveda Ahara: Food is medicine, but medicine is not food,’ at the ongoing 10th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) here today.
The panellists included Prof. Mita Kotecha, former pro vice-chancellor of the National Institute of Ayurveda Deemed University (NIADU) Jaipur, Prof. Tanuja Nesari, Director, All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi, and Prof. Anupam Shrivastava, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur.
The panel is working in close association with the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA) and other agencies.
There will be 700 recipes and formulations strictly following the Ayurvedic texts, besides several other recipes allowing conditional deviations in order to offer variety and successfully take on the existing mega food sector doing business in trillions, they said.
They said the initiative will revive India’s traditional food items that have given way to unhealthy processed products flooding the market, playing havoc with people’s health.
The project was launched under the Ayurveda Aahar Regulations 2022 and the rules framed under the law, they said. The guidelines under the law and the rules are in the final stages of preparation and will be put on public domain soon, they said
Other speakers at the session included Shri Kashmath Samagandi, Director of Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, and Dr Ashwathy P from National Institute of Ayurveda, Panchkula.
Most of the so-called Ayurvedic food articles available in the market at present will fail the test for authenticity in every aspect, be it the process, quality or quantity of the ingredients, they said.
Prof. Kotecha said the initiative would also play a major role in effectively dealing with the problems of hunger, malnutrition and obesity, besides helping the government meet the development goals set by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.
The proposed Ayurveda food segment will have an “ocean of opportunity” and sky as its limit, Prof. Nesari said.
The sector will be allowed to use the latest food technologies and take the help of nutritionists and Ayurveda experts so that the food and savouries prepared and marketed under the scheme retain the essential principles of the age-old Indian traditions, she said.
The marketing will be on the lines of the practices followed by the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, leveraging food aggregators who do door delivery and will ensure that these food varieties are available in all eateries, including star hotels, they added.