Jul 26, 2013

Experts highlight potentials of street food sector

The country needs to tap the huge potential of street food sector as it can provide employment and help growth of tourism, food experts said today.
At a national consultation organised by National Association of Street Vendors of (NASVI) here, street food advocates demanded that the government should formulate a national policy for encouraging street food vendors.
They also called for creation of food streets, trainings to street food vendors and support for entrepreneurship development of food vendors.
"FSSAI had notified Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations under which food and beverage firms, manufacturers and vendors, including companies in the unorganised sector, have to be registered and licensed and the regulations had helped street food vendors get legitimacy in several cities," Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) chairperson K Chandramouli said.
"A lot still have to be done...Implementation is a huge challenge and multi-sectoral synergies are needed to professionalise the street vended foods," he said.
Chandramouli also welcomed the recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee to create a 'Retail Regulatory Authority' to monitor the entry of foreign chains through foreign direct investment (FDI) and study the impact of FDI on medium, small and micro enterprises.
Delhi Food Safety Commissioner K J R Burman who extended support to street vendors said, "Professionalising leads to good advocacy. The food safety department is thinking over opening facilitation centres for registering street food vendors."
Senior CII functionaries Deepak Mathur and Anju Bisht announced that the industries' body would engage with NASVI in its new intervention project, which includes street food.

No comments:

Post a Comment