11 Indian Cities announced as winners of the Eat Smart Cities Challenge

The EatSmart Cities Challenge was launched by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in March 2021. The Challenge aims to motivate 'Smart Cities' to develop and execute a plan that supports a healthy, safe and sustainable food environment through adoption of various Eat Right India initiatives. A total of 108 cities had registered in the challenge out of which 20 cities were shortlisted for evaluation by an external jury panel comprising of national and international experts, including The Food Foundation.

Last week, 11 cities were selected as winners for the next phase of scale up. The Food Foundation have been partnering with this initiative through the the Food Cities 2022 Learning Partnership and are delighted to be working with these 11 cities as part of the core group of cities participating in the partnership. 

The 11 winning cities are Chandigarh, Indore, Jabalpur, Jammu, Panaji, Rajkot, Rourkela, Surat, Sagar, Tumkuru and Ujjain. The cities were required to implement an action under each of five action areas over a five month implementation phase. There were some fantastic examples of action from across the cities, including citizen engagement and behaviour change campaigns, working with businesses to improve food safety, improving waste streams and reducing use of plastic, and many more. These cities will now enter into the scale up stage of the Challenge wherein the projects undertaken at the pilot stage will be scaled up in a sustainable manner.

Shri Arun Singhal, CEO of FSSAI, said, “EatSmart Cities Challenge will have a positive impact on the lives of urban population by motivating them to eat right. This Challenge will support a large-scale effort to transform our Country’s food ecosystem to one that is safer, healthier and climate friendly. The world is seeking inspiration and innovation from the 11 chosen cities which are the front-runners of this challenge. I appreciate efforts displayed by all the participating cities and hopeful that this will be a game changer in creating massive social and behavioral change towards right eating practices in the years to come.”

To support the cities, FSSAI along with The Food Foundation will organize a series of activities and sessions to provide technical assistance and showcase their efforts at international forums. The Challenge is a hugely ambitious and exciting initiative from India. It has motivated and catalysed action on food systems across the country and The Food Foundation is thrilled to be partnering with FSSAI and working with these inspiring cities.

You can explore the profiles of these winning cities, as well as the other cities in the Partnership, on the Learning Platform, where they will be published once complete.