India’s food regulator proposes restrictions on unhealthy snacks near schools to promote healthier eating habits

India’s food regulator plans to tighten rules on the sale of high-fat, sugar, and salt foods near schools, aiming to curb unhealthy eating habits and promote longer-term dietary reforms.

India’s food regulator is moving to draw a harder line around what children can buy at school gates. Rajit Punhani, chief executive of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, said the agency is working on rules that would restrict sales of foods high in fat, sugar and salt on campuses and within 50 metres of school premises.

According to Punhani, the proposal is intended to reinforce FSSAI’s wider “Eat Right” programme, which uses school-based campaigns to encourage healthier habits from an early age. He said the draft has been placed before the Supreme Court for a decision, and that the aim is to shape children’s food choices through both regulation and education.

The move comes as Indian health authorities place greater emphasis on prevention, with diet, nutrition and food safety increasingly treated as part of the same public-health agenda. Punhani said at a conference in New Delhi that FSSAI’s work now spans school and campus initiatives, as well as efforts to promote balanced meals through programmes such as Eat Right Thali, which focuses on healthier plate composition.

He also said the regulator is stepping up enforcement before the festival season, after conducting several raids to check compliance with food-safety rules. The remarks suggest FSSAI is trying to combine longer-term dietary reform with shorter-term crackdowns on violations, especially at a time when sweets and processed snacks tend to see higher demand.

The proposal would sit alongside other recent efforts by Indian food authorities to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy products near schools. In Jammu and Kashmir, for example, the food and drug administration has already moved to bar junk food sales within 50 metres of school gates, underscoring a broader push to make school surroundings less permissive for heavily processed snacks.