TRICHY: Availability of food is not a bother any longer. Even subsidised food for the poor is available. But quality of food sold anywhere is suspect as it all depends on the personnel preparing them. To increase the availability of hygienic preparation of food, state government is planning to offer training for personnel like tea vendors, chat-makers and cooks soon.
The free training will be held at the State Institute of Hotel Management (SIHM) which is located at Thuvakudi, in Trichy. Such a government initiative is unprecedented in the state and will help a long way in improving food safety and quality.
The course named Basic Training for Hygienic Food Preparation will be held under the aegis of the commissioner of food safety and drug administration. Initially, training for 120 tea vendors will be conducted for 40 days in three batches. Each batch will have 40 candidates. The tea vendors will be also offered tips to find out adulterants in tea and coffee powder.
Chat-makers too will be trained for 40 days. Hygienic preparation of samosa, bhelpuri, paanipuri and other chat items will be taught at the classes to be held in three batches. Totally, 120 chat-makers will be trained initially.
Assistant cooks from hotels are also invited to participate in a 20-day training. Food safety department will encourage cooks to enrich foods with grains and pulses.
All the classes will be conducted from 3pm to 6pm from Monday to Friday. "Besides Trichy, the training will be held in Chennai. As of now, we have received around 130 applications. We hope to launch the training in February," said A Ramakrishnan, designated officer of the food safety wing, Trichy.
Participants will be given certificates at the end of training.
Ramakrishnan said that there is a difference between certified and non-certified cooks. So, the planned training will help a great deal in improving quality of food production. This will in turn help hotels and canteens to attract more customers.
On quality issues, Ramakrishnan said hoteliers in Trichy are following the Food Safety Standard Act. "Most hoteliers take care in providing good service to their customers so that they can attract and retain them. Hence, they are ready to accept relevant guidelines. It is possible to bring great changes in course of time," Ramakrishnan said on prospects of improving food safety.
However, eateries and roadside vendors in Trichy have to improve standards of food hygiene. Personnel at small outlets work without hand-gloves and head-caps while preparing and serving food. "An important provision of the Act is making the use of gloves compulsory. Though the cost of gloves and caps is cheap, many staff in hotels and roadside stalls are reluctant to use it. We repeatedly insist upon them to start using them," said Ramakrishnan.
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