Now you can soon find nutritional value of your food on app

Consumers can soon find out the nutritional value of their food while ordering it from a restaurant or dining at home as the Union Health ministry is set to launch a mobile app to provide this information.
The proposed app will be linked to the revised Indian Food Composition Tables-2017, which was unveiled today by Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who termed it a "historic" moment as India now joined the league of nations having its own complete food composition database.
Developed by National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the IFCT-2017 provides nutritional information on 151 discrete food components for 528 key foods.

The data originates from regional composite samples averaged from six geographical regions of the country.
"(We are exploring) If we can simplify this heavy two-kg book and translate into an app which a common man can understand. If a person has pizza, how much he has added, has he added any protien, or added calories or carbohydrates?
"If we are able to develop that, we will be able to translate healthy food practices for a common man through this app. This will be a tedious task," Nadda said while addressing International Symposium on 'Food composition in Nutrition and Health'.

He said he has asked the ICMR to convert this (book) into a mobile app as the present document has been written in a scientific language and it is hard for a common man to understand.

"We have asked it to be made into a common language. So that a common man can understand and in his day-to-day life, the food that he takes, what are the nutrient components, he can get it. We want that it comes out with an app.
"ICMR and NIN is working on it. We will come out with it soon. Common man can also get this scientifically written data in common language," he said.
The book not only provides data of regular nutrients in foods but also on a while range of bioactive substance. Vitamin D2 content in plant foods is presented here for the first time in the world.

Nadda said it is going to help the researchers as they can ascertain how with less economic input, maximum nutritional food can be given and also help the policy makers to think how a common man can be given food with maximum nutritional values.
Nadda said that this life-saving vaccine will not only
improve the health of our children but will also reduce hospitalization and other conditions associated with diarrhoea due to rotavirus such as malnutrition, delayed physical and mental development among children.
"Reduced hospitalization reduces the economic burden on the family and the health cost burden on the country. Rotavirus vaccine has been developed indigenously, under a public-private partnership by the Ministry of Science and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"This therefore is a landmark achievement under 'Make in India' initiative," he said.
Tripura Health Minister Badal Choudhary said that rotavirus vaccine will reduce morbidity and mortality among children from rotavirus diarrhoea and will benefit more than 53,000 children in Tripura.
He said the JE vaccine has also been added in the RI program in Tripura while highlighting some state-related health issues regarding Tripura.
In March 2016, the rotavirus vaccine was first introduced in four states namely Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and till date, about 38 lakh children have been vaccinated with the medicine in these states.

Globally, diarrhoea is responsible for 5,76,000 child deaths every year.
India's UIP provides free vaccines against 11 life threatening diseases, to 26 million children annually, the largest birth cohort in the world.
The UIP provides life-saving vaccines to all children across the country free of cost to protect them against Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis B, Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles, Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Rotavirus diarrhoea. (Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine in select states and districts).