The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maharashtra, has urged cooks at snack stalls at Juhu, Dadar and Girgaum Chowpatty to don aprons, gloves and hats, like their counterparts in five-star hotels. The rule will come into effect by the end of March 2013. The food served by them will also undergo checks for contamination at regular intervals.
The objective of imposing this rule is to provide customers a germ-free environment. Failure to comply with it would result in not getting the license, a requisite to continue running the business. The state food regulator organised a workshop with the beachside food business operators (FBOs) recently, to which the response was positive.
FDA Maharashtra officials appealed to them to follow the hygiene standards laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006. Suresh Desmukh, joint commissioner, food, FDA, Greater Mumbai said, “In the first phase of implementing the Act, which is now complete, our target was to register the vendors with the FDA. Now, we are focussing on hygiene.”
He added, “At the end of the month, we will be organising a workshop to inform vendors about the standards they have to adhere to. They will not be given time to adopt hygiene norms, as they have already had that. We intend to make sellers hygiene-conscious by making aprons, gloves and hats mandatory.”
“None of the vendors' excuses will be accepted. Those who do not follow the norms will be fined. The three beaches are extremely popular tourist spots. People come here in large numbers, which is why we want to build up the image of street food vendors here,” Deshmukh said.
The objective of imposing this rule is to provide customers a germ-free environment. Failure to comply with it would result in not getting the license, a requisite to continue running the business. The state food regulator organised a workshop with the beachside food business operators (FBOs) recently, to which the response was positive.
FDA Maharashtra officials appealed to them to follow the hygiene standards laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006. Suresh Desmukh, joint commissioner, food, FDA, Greater Mumbai said, “In the first phase of implementing the Act, which is now complete, our target was to register the vendors with the FDA. Now, we are focussing on hygiene.”
He added, “At the end of the month, we will be organising a workshop to inform vendors about the standards they have to adhere to. They will not be given time to adopt hygiene norms, as they have already had that. We intend to make sellers hygiene-conscious by making aprons, gloves and hats mandatory.”
“None of the vendors' excuses will be accepted. Those who do not follow the norms will be fined. The three beaches are extremely popular tourist spots. People come here in large numbers, which is why we want to build up the image of street food vendors here,” Deshmukh said.
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