CHENNAI: Street food may be off the streets soon with the Food Safety and Drug Administration department asking all food vendors and roadside eateries to register with them by February 4.
Food safety officials launched a spot registration drive in Anna Nagar on Thursday to bring food vendors, including restaurants, roadside eateries, tea shops, juice shops and vegetable and fruit vendors, under the purview of Food Safety and Standards Act.
District food safety officer S Lakshmi Narayan said close to 200 vendors in Anna Nagar were registered on Thursday. "We have conducted awareness programmes about the provisions of the act and instructed vendors to keep their premises clean. We plan to conduct similar camps in Tondiarpet, Sowcarpet, Velachery and Adyar," he said. Hotel or eatery owners can call 8682868400 for details about registration.
As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, a licence is compulsory to run any food business with an annual turnover of more than 12 lakh. Those with a lower turnover must mandatorily register with the department. Less than 10,000 of the 23,000 identified food vendors in the city have enrolled with the department.
Vendors who fail to register may have to shut shop, pay fines ranging from 25,000 to 10 lakh or face imprisonment up to six months. Many vendors complain that enrollment under the act is a cumbersome procedure.
K T Srinivasa Raja, president of Chennai Hotels Association, said they have sought an extension of the deadline. "The stringent punishment for minor violations should be removed from the act as it would adversely affect the hotel industry," he said.
Good going....
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