HYDERABAD: Several activists, academicians, scientists and intellectuals have written an open letter to the scientists of Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition, finding fault with NIN’s assessment of nutritional value of the food supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) to nearly 2,814 schools in Karnataka as midday meals and certifying it as nutritionally adequate.
Calling the assessment report unscientific, they demanded in their letter that the institution withdraw its report and conduct a ‘systemic field evaluation’ of midday meals supplied by APF.
When contacted, NIN refuted the allegations saying that it followed the accepted scientific tools for the assessment.
It was in January this year when Karnataka government mailed NIN asking for its comments on nutritional diversity of food menu supplied as midday meals by the APF to government schools. This move was result of a controversy over non-supply of eggs as part of midday meal by APF, which is mandated by Central government and also over non-usage of onion and garlic.
It may be mentioned here that APF provides midday meals to around 1.36 lakh students in 1,100 schools in Telangana. Speaking to TNIE, NIN Director Dr R Hemalatha said that Karnataka government sent them menu of midday meal supplied by APF and asked for comments on whether it is nutritionally diverse and fulfils the calorific requirements as suggested by the government.
Dr Hemalatha said, “We compute values of proteins, various macronutrients and micronutrients, of the midday meal menu supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation, as given to us by Karnataka government. For it we used Indian Food Composition Table (IFCT) that has information on 160-odd nutrients of 550 foods and Nutritive Value of Indian Foods(NVIF), both developed by NIN. We compared these values with the standards recommended by Karnataka government and submitted a report,” she said.
However, in the open letter written to NIN scientists, this method of using ‘paper menu’ has been criticised. A demand has been made to collect food samples, research into quantity and quality of ingredients used, amount consumed by school children and then provide a report.It was also pointed out that as per the recommendations, add onion and garlic in the food.