More protein, fat in midday meal platters likely

Expert committee suggests energy dense food for kids

Elementary schoolchildren may soon get more protein and fat, and less carbohydrates in their midday meal platter.

A committee of experts under Vinod K Paul, who heads the Paediatrics Department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS), has recommended this diet to provide kids with “energy dense food.”

“The recommendation of the committee is under consideration,” official sources in the human resource development (HRD) ministry told DH.

The committee, in the report submitted to the ministry a few months ago, had suggested no changes in the protein content of the midday meal.

However, when the issue was taken up for discussion at a recent meeting of Empowered Committee on MidDay Meal Scheme, Paul suggested increasing the protein and decreasing the carbohydrate content.

“Paul has informed that the committee recommended reducing the carbohydrate and enhancing the protein and fat content under mid-day meal scheme,” the minutes of the empowered committee meeting stated.

The meeting was presided over by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.

At present, the midday meal scheme provides kids in the primary classes (I to V) with food containing 450 calories with 12 gm protein per serving. For the students of the upper primary classes (up to Class VIII), the current provisions provide food containing 700 calories with 20 gm protein per serving.

The current food norms under the scheme provides 100 gm of grains for students of primary classes and 150 gm of grains for upper primary classes. The quantity of pulses for the students of primary classes is fixed at 20 gm, while it is 30 gm for the students of upper primary classes.

Requirement of oil and fat in the midday meal is currently pegged at 5 gm and 7.5 gm per serving for primary and upper primary students respectively.

Working out a new menu, the committee has suggested reducing the foodgrain quantity to 80 gm from the current 100 gm, meant for the students of primary classes.

For the upper primary classes, the panel has recommended bringing down the quantity of grain to 125 gm from the current 150 gm, sources said.
It has recommended increasing the fat content to 10 gm per serving from the current 5 gm for the primary classes.