From Mid-Day Meal to PM POSHAN: School Catering and Food Safety

India’s school meal programme is more than providing lunch to children. It brings together nutrition, education, food safety and social participation. What was popularly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has evolved into the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) programme of the Government of India. Its objectives include improving the nutritional status of eligible children, addressing classroom hunger and supporting regular school participation and concentration.

From Mid-Day Meal to PM POSHAN

India’s school meal programmes have a long history, with organised initiatives developing in different regions before the national programme expanded over time. In 2021, the programme was renamed PM POSHAN, with a framework covering meal provision, nutrition, kitchen infrastructure, cooks and helpers, transportation, monitoring and other operational requirements.

More Than Just Cooking

Preparing food for a large number of children is very different from preparing a meal at home. Large-scale school catering requires coordinated procurement, storage, preparation, cooking, portioning, serving and sanitation.

The PM POSHAN framework recognises this operational dimension through provisions relating to food grains, cooking costs, kitchen infrastructure, equipment, cook-cum-helpers and monitoring.

Institutional Catering Pillars

Nutritional Accuracy • Mass Procurement • Food-Safety Requirements • Consistency

Food Safety at Scale

When food is prepared for a large number of children, food safety becomes an essential responsibility. Ingredient handling, hygiene, cooking, storage and service all need appropriate controls.

FSSAI identifies Schedule 4, Part V as covering hygienic and sanitary practices for licensed food businesses engaged in catering and food-service operations. FSSAI also emphasises Food Safety Management Systems and hazard control throughout the food chain.

Official reference: FSSAI — Hygiene Requirements & Schedule 4

Nutrition, Local Food and Acceptability

A school meal has to serve a nutritional purpose while remaining practical and acceptable to children. PM POSHAN guidance encourages consideration of seasonal vegetables, local ingredients and varied menus while meeting the programme’s nutritional framework.

This demonstrates an important principle of institutional catering: good food systems must balance nutrition, consistency, safety and acceptability.

The Real Challenge: Consistency

Large-scale catering is not simply about preparing more food. It requires systems that can maintain consistency despite differences in ingredients, manpower, infrastructure, geography and operating conditions.

Standardised recipes, portion control, trained food handlers, procurement planning, kitchen discipline and monitoring can all contribute to a more reliable food-service operation.

What PM POSHAN Teaches the Catering Industry

PM POSHAN offers an important lesson for institutional and large-scale catering: food service is a complete system.

From school meals to corporate, railway, community and institutional catering, the fundamentals remain connected — procurement, nutrition, food safety, people, infrastructure, preparation, service and accountability.

From the Perspective of Lazeez Hakeem®

At Lazeez Hakeem® | Since 1971, we see catering as an important part of culinary and hospitality knowledge. School meal programmes provide a valuable example of how food can connect nutrition, public service, safety and large-scale operations.

The purpose of such a programme is not luxury dining or commercial hospitality. It is to support a public nutrition and education objective through a structured food-service system.

A meal for a child may look simple on the plate, but behind it can be an entire food system working together.

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One meal for a child.
An entire food system behind it.

Lazeez Hakeem® | Since 1971
Food • Hospitality • Catering • Food Safety • Culinary Knowledge