MUMBAI: Street food will soon don the "healthy" tag with the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) planning to hold training sessions for vendors and give them
lessons on how to cook and serve hygienic fare. The pilot project will
include vendors at Nariman Point, Girgaum chowpatty, Juhu chowpatty and
Khau Galli at Marine Lines.
FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagade said the plan was aimed at sensitizing street food hawkers about the health hazards that unhygienic cooking might cause. The department will start with registering eating joints and then holding workshops and seminars for the sellers. "They will be taught to use fresh raw material, wear caps while preparing food and put on gloves while serving food," Zagade said. The project will also be held in Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur and Nashik.
The FDA on Thursday announced how it has cracked down on food and drug adulteration a year after the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, came into effect. Zagade attributed their "triumph" to increased raids and checks. Food inspectors across the state have been carrying test kids and conducting on-the-spot checks to see if the food and medicine samples complied with the safety standards. In the festive season, Zagade said, the checks would be intensified.
Since the beginning of September, the FDA collected 62 samples of mawa and 47 of sweets to check their quality; following a test, the officials seized both the items, collectively worth Rs 3.28 lakh, for poor quality.
Zagade said efforts to curb milk adulteration, too, seemed to have yielded results. Of the 944 milk samples tested in the state, 690 conformed to set standards. "While 226 samples were substandard, meaning they had less fat content, only 1.8% was found to be unfit for consumption," he said. Unsafe milk powder, worth Rs 49 lakh, was seized and destroyed immediately.
Adulteration has been found to be less in medicines manufactured in the state. This was revealed by 20,833 samples of drugs brought from other states in three years; of them 1,488 or 7.14% tested below standard. Among the 9,148 samples of state-manufactured drugs tested, only 2.67% was of poor quality.
FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagade said the plan was aimed at sensitizing street food hawkers about the health hazards that unhygienic cooking might cause. The department will start with registering eating joints and then holding workshops and seminars for the sellers. "They will be taught to use fresh raw material, wear caps while preparing food and put on gloves while serving food," Zagade said. The project will also be held in Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur and Nashik.
The FDA on Thursday announced how it has cracked down on food and drug adulteration a year after the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, came into effect. Zagade attributed their "triumph" to increased raids and checks. Food inspectors across the state have been carrying test kids and conducting on-the-spot checks to see if the food and medicine samples complied with the safety standards. In the festive season, Zagade said, the checks would be intensified.
Since the beginning of September, the FDA collected 62 samples of mawa and 47 of sweets to check their quality; following a test, the officials seized both the items, collectively worth Rs 3.28 lakh, for poor quality.
Zagade said efforts to curb milk adulteration, too, seemed to have yielded results. Of the 944 milk samples tested in the state, 690 conformed to set standards. "While 226 samples were substandard, meaning they had less fat content, only 1.8% was found to be unfit for consumption," he said. Unsafe milk powder, worth Rs 49 lakh, was seized and destroyed immediately.
Adulteration has been found to be less in medicines manufactured in the state. This was revealed by 20,833 samples of drugs brought from other states in three years; of them 1,488 or 7.14% tested below standard. Among the 9,148 samples of state-manufactured drugs tested, only 2.67% was of poor quality.
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