Union Minister of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Prof K V Thomas says the government is planning to implement schemes at the school level to create awareness to avoid food wastage.

Delivering a key note address at the 27th meeting of the Central Consumer Protection Council in Kochi today, Prof Thomas said the union Human Resources Development ministry has agreed to implement the schemes. He said India is among the world's largest food wasting countries.

Prof Thomas said a corpus of ten crore rupees will be created, with the centre contributing 7.5 crore rupees and rest by the state governments under the State Chief Secretaries to manage funds under the Consumer Welfare Fund.

The Minister said a modern lab and office of the Bureau of Indian Standards will be set up in Kochi. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the Council Meet.