The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will begin displaying ingredients and nutritional values for selected dishes at its headquarters canteen in Fort after the facility was shut by the Food and Drug Administration for food-safety violations in July. The pilot is expected to be launched by October-end and may later be extended to canteens in all 26 BMC ward offices and civic-run hospitals.
The posters will identify the ingredients used in snacks and meals and highlight the most prominent nutritional value of each selected item, according to officials. The initiative is intended to encourage healthier eating and follows a September 2 order by the government’s Public Health Department mandating balanced and healthy meals at government and semi-government meetings, as well as snacks served in canteens.
The Fort canteen, located on the first floor of the BMC headquarters annex building, serves hundreds of people each day. Its users include civic employees, citizens visiting the municipal headquarters, contractors, politicians, pensioners and labourers.
The move follows regulatory action against the canteen operator, M/s Kamal Caterers Private Limited. The FDA served the operator a notice on July 22 and suspended its licence after an inspection found what officials described as glaring violations of food-safety norms. The canteen was sealed on July 23.
The facility reopened in August after an FDA re-inspection recorded improvements and rated the premises 94 per cent compliant. The reopening allowed the canteen to resume operations, while the BMC subsequently began preparing a separate system to make food information more visible to users.
Officials said the BMC’s canteen committee recently visited the facility to collect data on the snacks and meals being served. It prepared a list of nutritious items, which was then submitted to the civic body’s in-house nutritionist for review.
“The list prepared by the canteen committee has been submitted to the BMC’s in-house nutritionist who is now preparing a detailed list of nutritional values of select items served at the canteen,” a government official told The Indian Express.
Once the nutritionist gives final approval, small posters will be installed across the canteen. The displayed information will cover both the ingredients and the nutritional value of selected dishes rather than the entire menu, based on the details available from the civic administration.
The BMC plans to gradually replicate the system at canteens in its ward offices and civic-run hospitals, including Nair Hospital and JJ Hospital. These facilities serve different groups of municipal employees, patients, attendants and visitors, making the proposed expansion broader than the initial headquarters pilot.
The initiative places the BMC’s own food-service facilities under greater public visibility after a regulatory inspection exposed shortcomings at one of its canteens. The immediate next step is the in-house nutritionist’s approval, followed by installation of the posters at the Fort canteen by the expected October-end deadline.
