FDA to train city’s food business operators

PUNE: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Pune is all set to make the city a ‘food safety city’ with the aim of entering into the Limca Book of Records.

Under this ambitious project, all the food business operators in the city will be trained on the sanitary and hygienic practices.

While the experiment by FDA of training the roadside food vendors outside Saras Baug was a failure, it is optimistic about the upcoming food safety projects as it will now have the provision to take legal action against food business operators if they fail in the hygienic practices after completion of the training.

The project will be joint venture of the FDA, Pune and Bindra Hospitality Services Private Limited.

“In a city like Pune that has around 9,000 small, medium and big food business operators, it is difficult to train all of them. Therefore, a phase-wise mass training in food handling and hygiene practices will be given to all the restaurant owners, followed by kitchen operators of various hotels and restaurants and basic food cart owners, home-based mess owners and street vendors,” said S R Kekare, Joint Commissioner (food) of FDA Pune.

The programme is designed as per Schedule 4 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Free training will be given in a phased manner starting from hotel, restaurant owners, managers, waiters and kitchen workers, home-based mess and street vendors. All the operators will be registered and given certificates after successful completion of the training.

“Often, street vendors complain about not being aware of the Act and maintaining hygiene levels. Hospitality experts will train them scientifically and FDA officials will train them on the provisions of the Act,” he added.

The training sessions will comprise of cleaning the equipment and containers, management and supervision, food testing facilities, audit, documentation and records, personal hygiene, managing raw material, drainage and waste disposal and ventilation and lighting. The training will be given in Marathi, Hindi and English languages.

FREE TRAINING

Free training will be given in a phased manner starting from hotel and restaurant owners, managers, waiters and kitchen workers, home-based mess and street vendors.