Despite 15k eateries, city lacks standardized food safety tests

Surat residents are known for their street food habits

SURAT: It's an old saying, 'Surat nu jaman, ne Kashi nu maran' (eat in Surat and die in Kashi). However, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), which is preparing hard for the Smart City challenge, is yet to frame Standard Operating Procedure (SoPs) for food safety.

This was revealed by SMC's health and hospital department, while replying to an application by Rajesh Modi under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He had sought details on the procedure being followed by the department for food safety and hygiene, critical for preparing and selling food in the restaurants, hotels and at roadside eateries.

Diamond City could well be called the 'Food capital of India'. Surat residents are known for their street food habits. This is the reason why the restaurants are not doing well compared to roadside eateries, which dish out delicious food to the customers starting from evening till late night.

According to an estimated survey by the civic body, there are more than 15,000 roadside eatery stalls dishing out vegetarian, non-vegetarian and Chinese delicacies. Most of these eateries do their business only during night hours.

The roadside eateries, however, poses twin problems. The unhygienic environment exposes the food to open air. There are chances of dust on the road and insects settling down on the food. Throwing away of the leftovers on the roadside also creates an unhealthy atmosphere for the surroundings. The SoP, if at all framed by the civic body, would go a long way in ensuring quality at every stage of the food chain, so that the residents are served hygienic and quality foods. It will also facilitate scientific determination of quality of food.

When the civic body talks of smart city, it is yet to get smart by collaborating the manual data of the lab testing report of the food samples and water tested by the food safety officers. Even today, the old system of maintaining registers and there is no system of online data compilation.

As per the RTI reply, the health and hospital department has not conducted a single drive to spread awareness on food safety for the denizens in the city.

"There is no standard operating procedure for food safety and hygiene for a city having population of 55 lakh. The food safety officers conduct sample testing when they receive complaints — most of the complaints are done to harass the food stall owners," said Rajesh Modi, RTI activist.