Small food vendors taste a sour tang - THE HINDU

A street food vendor in the city, thinks a strict food safety regime will do good to the trade. 

 

Impact of food-poisoning death on wayside eateries 

The times are not good for the food vendors in the streets of the capital city Thiruvananthapuram. Already facing action from authorities, including the police, as part of attempts to ensure hygiene and to maintain law and order, the sector is anticipating tougher days as more operational norms are to be brought into force.

The turmoil created by a recent food-poisoning death has had its impact not just on big eateries, but also on the little pushcart and makeshift ‘thattukada’ traders as well. They, who stay awake while the rest of the city sleeps, serving spicy omelettes, piping hot ‘dosas,’ and steaming tea to late-night office-goers, the techie crowd, and other passers-by, are now worried over their very existence.

“We do not have any problems in a stricter food safety regime coming. But yes, before that is brought into force, we would like the authorities to ensure basic facilities like supply of clean water, proper drainage garbage disposal facilities, and adequate power supply,” says Gopakumar, who operates a mini tea-stall adjacent to the compound wall of the Transport Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr. Gopakumar, who has been in the business for 28 years now, says the ‘field’ is very competitive, and hence ‘99.99 per cent’ of his colleagues in the sector would be ready to embrace better hygiene practices to stay afloat.

“I have not faced any losses after the recent developments, since my clientele is largely the same set of people, including employees from the Transport Bhavan and surroundings. They know I offer only safe food. But it has not been the same for everyone,” he says, adding that many were reluctant to make more investments into what they already had because there was no guarantee that they would be allowed to continue.

Padmini, who runs a pushcart eatery along with her brother Manikandan near the Museum, is one among those hit hard by the raids, revelations, and their impact on public psyche.

“Our revenue on weekdays used to be around Rs.3,000 a day before all this. That has fallen to less than 1,000 now, and the profits are far lesser. On top of that, there are officials who tell us repeatedly that our surroundings are not hygienic. We submitted several complaints to the Corporation pointing out that there were no public toilets here and that garbage from the surroundings are washed towards our carts whenever it rains,” she says. The onus, many of them feel, is not just on them to make affairs better, but on civic authorities as well.

'Ban gutka or we will', High court tells Akhilesh Yadav government

LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court has ordered the UP government to implement central government's directions under the Food Safety Act to restrain manufacturing, sale and distribution of 'gutka' or other products containing tobacco as an ingredient in the state and inform the court after 14 days steps taken in compliance of the order.

Fixing October 10 as the date filing compliance report, the court, in its order passed on a public interest litigation filed by Indian Dental Association, also said that if the state government failed to act within in stipulated time, it may be consider to pass an order banning gutkha.

Earlier, standing counsel for the central government submitted before the court three letters sent by the special secretary, union ministry of health and family welfare, between May-August 2012 directing the UP government to prohibit the sale and distribution of gutkha or pan masala containing tobacco, in the light of the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act putting restrictions on adding tobacco and nicotine to any food product.

In response, the state government on September 10, filed an affidavit in the court assuring that it would take necessary action to ban the sale of guthka in UP in 14 days. However, contrary to its assurance, the UP government has not banned gutkha so far. As a result, a division bench comprising Justice Amar Saran and Justice Anurag Kumar, which is hearing the case, in its order observed that as many as 13 states have already imposed ban on manufacture, distribution and sale of gutkha.

Also, it said, no stay orders by the high courts of those states or the Supreme Court on decision to ban gutkha by any state has been passed. The high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Kerala and Patna have affirmed the decisions of their state governments imposing restrictions, it said. "There can hardly be any dispute that use of gutkha is highly addictive and causative of oral cancer and periodontal and other diseases including being a risk factor for strokes and cardiac arrests and that according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India (GATS) 2010 an estimated 20.6 crore Indians are using this harmful product which poses a grave health risk to our people in general and to the younger generation in particular.

It is also stated that India enjoys the dubious distinction of being the oral cancer capital of the world due to the high levels of smokeless tobacco use,"" the bench stated in the order.The court recalled that UP government had earlier assured on May 23, 2012 that it is seriously considering prohibiting the sale of gutkha.

"But instead of putting a ban on the manufacture and sale on gutkha, the UP government has lowered the tax so as to facilitate increased sale of this product. We have already expressed regret over this development in our on September 10," the bench said. In the light of thse facts, the sincerity and commitment of the UP government to care for the health of citizens by restricting the use of gutkha which is a health hazard is under examination now, the court stated in the order.

The court also observed that the Right to health is a fundamental right flowing from the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Article 47 casts a fundamental duty on the State to improve public health, and to endeavour to prohibit consumption of intoxicating substances which are injurious to health. The state government counsel told the court that there is no doubt that gutkha is harmful but only the central government can put a restriction on its use. However, court's view was that both the central and state government are responsible for enforcement of the Food Safety Act.

Strict food safety regime soon - THE HINDU

A strict food safety regime, where people will not have to be apprehensive about eating out, will be in vogue in the State within three years, Food Safety Commissioner Biju Prabhakar has said.
Inaugurating a one-day workshop on ‘streetside vendors and food safety’, jointly organised by the SEWA-Union and the Kerala Street Vendors’ Forum (KSVF) here on Monday, Mr. Prabhakar said the recent happenings in Thiruvananthapuram and elsewhere after the death of one person due to food poisoning had got the public thinking more on the safety aspects of eating out.
Hotels had already lost about 60 per cent of their business, according to hotel sources themselves, he said, stating that only few hotels had managed to get back to normal business.
A fast food trend that was rapidly catching up in the State had brakes applied on it, though the department had not taken any drastic step other than making clear what the law said.
Street vendors or the ‘thattukada’ sector was yet to feel a serious impact of the developments, most probably because there was no stocking of food for the next day.
Still, unless street food vendors upgraded their hygiene levels, they were bound to lose customers gradually, Mr. Prabhakar said.
Stating that a grading system, based on the hygienic practices and standards adhered to by each hotel and food seller, would soon be introduced, Mr. Prabhakar said street vendors too would have to go in for food safety registration and certification, which was being made mandatory.
It would cost only Rs.100 a year, he told the gathering of street vendors at the workshop, adding that future training programmes, rehabilitation programmes, campaigns and the entire gamut of government initiatives for the sector would require such registration.
The aim was to bring into force a strict food safety regime, in which hotels or street vendors who were not registered or did not adhere to safety and hygiene norms would not be allowed to do business, he said.
Citing examples of the law already being enforced strictly, Mr. Prabhakar said the Indian Coffee House at Thampanoor had been served an ultimatum to shift base from its current location, since there was a drainage adjacent to it and that could not be allowed under any circumstance.
Joint Food Safety Commissioner K. Anil Kumar, SEWA-Union State secretary Sonia George, and KSVF State president Sadashivan Nair spoke.

Medical staff given work of food safety officers

The state government has notified that deputy civil surgeons, senior medical officers (SMO) and medical officers (MO) serving with the health department would also enjoy the power of food safety officers (FSO) in districts where the posts of food safety officer were lying vacant or where the workload was more in order to implement the Food and Safety Standards Act-2006.
Dr G.L. Singhal, Drug Controller and Joint Commissioner Food and Drug Administration of Haryana, said since there was a shortage of food safety officers in the state, the medical officers had been assigned the powers of the food safety officer so that there was no violation in the field.
He said Haryana was, perhaps, the first state to take action regarding the sale of infant milk substitute. It had raided the premises of a wholesale distributor of infant milk substitute food products here in July and seized some samples for testing.
The state government had also banned the sale of bottled white fluid used as corrector (eraser) in typed documents and nail polish remover sold in bottle type of container, he said.