NEW DELHI:
Snapdeal, India’s leading value-focused e-commerce marketplace, today announced its participation in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s ‘Eat Right India’ Movement being led by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Starting today, Snapdeal orders that are daily shipped to reach 92% of India’s total towns and cities, will have prominently placed customized information stickers about fortified products.
The stickers will drive awareness about the “+F” mark that identifies fortified foods and will educate consumers about the importance of fortified foods in fighting malnutrition. Snapdeal will also use its digital channels to disseminate information about the benefits of fortified foods in daily diets and how consumers can identify such products with the +F mark while buying online or offline.
In addition to this, the company will also work closely with its sellers, delivery partners and third-party workers to deliver the message to a larger audience.
Today, India suffers from the triple burden of malnutrition. Over half of women and children suffer from anemia. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension account for more than 60% of deaths. To tackle this growing problem, fortification of food has been identified as a key intervention area under POSHAN Abhiyaan. Food fortification is a process in which key vitamins and minerals like Vitamin A&D and minerals such as Iron, Iodine, Zinc are added to staples such as rice, wheat, oil, milk and salt to provide better nutritional outcomes.
Speaking on the initiative, Snapdeal’s Senior Vice President, Rajnish Wahi said , “Our support for the Eat Right Movement is an extension of our spirit to serve Bharat. We are proud to galvanize forces with Food Fortification Resource Centre (FFRC) and scale up communication in a short span of time, covering millions of people and impacting community behavior positively.”
Applauding the efforts of Snapdeal, Arun Singhal, CEO FSSAI, highlighted that such mechanisms are certainly a great vehicle in taking key messaging to the grass-roots level for the benefit of our society at large. He encouraged other similar business models to come forward and disseminate the right messaging on safe, healthy and sustainable eating practices through their vast delivery network.
Talking about the future strategy for scaling-up food fortification, Singhal further added “FSSAI has already issued a draft notification for mandatory fortification of edible oil and milk. In the near future, our people will be able to get recommended doses of micro-nutrients through availability of fortified edible oil and packaged toned, double toned, skimmed milk or standardized milk fortified with essential vitamins like A and D. He urged people to start recognizing the +F mark on 5 key staples.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be the biggest socio-economic and health crises that the world has seen, there have been some silver linings too. It has brought a positive behavioural change in nutritional habits of people and there is a heightened desire to know more about healthy eating practices, in both urban and rural areas.
