Dehradun, Dec 13 (PTI) Food and snacks based on authentic Ayurvedic recipes will reach markets across the country soon, which will help sharply reduce the burden of lifestyle diseases such as malnutrition, diabetes and hypertension.
This was revealed by members of the high-level committee set up to finalise the modalities for the production and marketing of Ayurvedic food and snacks during a plenary session on 'Ayurveda Ahara: Food is medicine, but medicine is not food' at the ongoing 10th World Ayurveda Congress here.
The project was launched under the Ayurveda Aahar Regulations 2022 and the rules framed under the law, they said.
The panelists included Prof Mita Kotecha, former pro vice chancellor of the National Institute of Ayurveda Deemed University (NIADU) Jaipur, Prof Tanuja Nesari, Director, All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi, and Prof Anupam Shrivastava, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur.
The panel is working in close association with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and other agencies.
There will be 700 recipes and formulations strictly following the Ayurvedic texts, besides several other recipes allowing conditional deviations in order to offer variety and successfully take on the existing mega food sector doing business in trillions, they said.
They said the initiative will revive India's traditional food items that have given way to unhealthy processed products flooding the market, playing havoc with people's health.
Prof Mita Kotecha, vice chancellor of NIADU, Jaipur, said the initiative would also play a major role in effectively dealing with the problems of hunger, malnutrition and obesity, besides helping the government meet the development goals set by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.
The proposed Ayurveda food segment will have an "ocean of opportunity" and sky as its limit, Prof Nesari said.
Other speakers at the session included Kashmath Samagandi, Director of Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, and Dr Ashwathy P from National Institute of Ayurveda, Panchkula.
The sector will be allowed to use the latest food technologies and take the help of nutritionists and Ayurveda experts so that the food and savouries prepared and marketed under the scheme retain the essential principles of the age-old Indian traditions, she said.
The marketing will be on the lines of the practices followed by the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, leveraging food aggregators who do door delivery and will ensure that these food varieties are available in all eateries, including star hotels, they added.