A coordination committee appointed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) – the country's apex food regulator – visited nine food markets in Ahmedabad recently, selected about 100 food joint owners and their employees and trained them at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) new West Zone office over a period of four days to prepare and serve food to their customers in a hygienic manner.
H G Koshia, commissioner, Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) Gujarat, was a member of the team that imparted the training, as were Mahesh Soni, deputy secretary, investigation, FDCA Gujarat, and Atul Soni, public analyst, AMC. The trainees were vendors at the Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden markets, and non-vegetarian ones such as Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.
“Our teams visited the markets, observed the way the vendors work and took their photographs before selecting the vendors for training. We chalked out a training programme and the trainees were given complementary kits comprising gloves, aprons and caps, which they were asked to wear while cooking food and serving it to the customers.
They were also asked to undergo regular health check-ups,” Koshia said.
He added that the vendors were given a period of two weeks to improve the manner in which they work, and strict action would be taken against them if they did not adhere to any of the instructions given to them during the training programme. Incidentally, some of the selected vendors operate from roadside stalls, where the safety of the food remains a cause for concern.
Koshia said the FSSAI officials were impressed by the efforts put in by the trainers for the last one year, adding that K Chandramouli, chairperson of the country's apex food regulator, visited Ahmedabad and urged other states to follow the Gujarat model. So far, study teams from Bihar and Haryana have visited the state and replicated the training programme in those states, and eight other states will follow suit shortly.
H G Koshia, commissioner, Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) Gujarat, was a member of the team that imparted the training, as were Mahesh Soni, deputy secretary, investigation, FDCA Gujarat, and Atul Soni, public analyst, AMC. The trainees were vendors at the Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden markets, and non-vegetarian ones such as Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.
“Our teams visited the markets, observed the way the vendors work and took their photographs before selecting the vendors for training. We chalked out a training programme and the trainees were given complementary kits comprising gloves, aprons and caps, which they were asked to wear while cooking food and serving it to the customers.
They were also asked to undergo regular health check-ups,” Koshia said.
He added that the vendors were given a period of two weeks to improve the manner in which they work, and strict action would be taken against them if they did not adhere to any of the instructions given to them during the training programme. Incidentally, some of the selected vendors operate from roadside stalls, where the safety of the food remains a cause for concern.
Koshia said the FSSAI officials were impressed by the efforts put in by the trainers for the last one year, adding that K Chandramouli, chairperson of the country's apex food regulator, visited Ahmedabad and urged other states to follow the Gujarat model. So far, study teams from Bihar and Haryana have visited the state and replicated the training programme in those states, and eight other states will follow suit shortly.
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