Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli stated that they would prevent the consumption of high energy products in school canteens using "School Canteens Logo" and said "We're passing the application from today. As of 2019-2020 academic year, products without school food logo will not be allowed to be sold in school canteens."
Minister Mr. Pakdemirli, Minister of Education Ziya Selçuk and Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca attended the signing ceremony of "Logo Application Collaboration Protocol for Foods in School Canteens" organized in Ministry of Health.
Minister Bekir Pakdemirli made a speech at the ceremony and "With the Presidential Government System the coordination between the ministries has increased. The acquisition of healthy eating habits should be a constitutional right, like education" he said.
"THE CANTEENS WILL BE UNDER THE AUDIT AND SUPERVISION OF THE THREE MINISTRIES"
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli stressed that the canteens will be under the audit and supervision of the three ministries and the audit will start not only in the canteen but also in production areas.
As a father of three children and brother of all country children, Pakdemirli wants to draw attention to a topic and said:
"The families' children are entrusted to us. Children's access to healthy food was the rightful demand of families and they also expected us. In a sense, we will be signing a escrow contract with our parents. One out of every five people in Turkey obese. We're better than developed countries. But 25 percent of our children are overweight. I use the phrase 'food literacy' and I care about it very much. With food literacy; we need to know what food is produced from, what is beneficial and harmful to the person. Food literacy in Turkey is not very high. If we can gain food literacy habits from a child's age, we will have much more generous generations in the future."
CALL FROM MINISTER PAKDEMIRLI TO FAMILIES
Calling on families Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli, "Two pillars for education are very important; one is school, the other is family and home. If we give our children a healthy eating habit at home, we guarantee future generations." he said.
The Minister pointed out that the school food application will be implemented jointly with the ministries and said "With the school food logo, we will prevent the consumption of products with high energy density, we will fight against obesity. We will provide our children, the guarantee of our future, good eating habits at an early age. We aim to distinguish the foods that are suitable for good eating habits from other products."
PRODUCTS WITHOUT LOGO CANNOT BE SOLD
With this application, we will control the food and health of more than 17 million students. Minister Pakdemirli said "We're passing the application from today. As of 2019-2020 academic year, products without school food logo will not be allowed to be sold in school canteens."
WE GO TO THE APPLICATION OF TRAFFIC LIGHTS FOR INCREASING AWARENESS
Minister Pakdemirli pointed out that food literacy is very important issue for future generations. Minister stated that "We go to the application of traffic lights for increasing awareness. Traffic lights are yellow, red, green. We will be passing the food application which has yellow, red and green colors in the near future with the change of regulation. Our citizens, who see the red, will be directed towards healthier products. Increasing awareness is one of our main goals. We want to bring 80 million citizens a healthier eating habit.
Minister Bekir Pakdemirli stated that he would like to encourage food producers in this regard, he used the expressions "We have over 17 million students. This is actually a very big market. If our valuable producers produce products that are suitable for school food application quickly, they will be a significant gain door for themselves."