Chaat walas to wear aprons by end of March

Vendors in Chowpatty respond to the hygiene drive by FDA. File pic

By the end of March, your favourite food vendor at the chowpatty will have to emulate the sanitised cooking practices supposed to be followed in five-star hotels

The cooks at street stalls will have to don apron, gloves and hat, and the food they serve will undergo regular checks for contamination.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for a workshop with vendors at the end of the month, appealing to them to follow hygiene norms prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006. The officials expect food stalls to provide customers a germ-free environ- ment by the end of March, or they won’t be issued the requisite licence and will be disciplined with a fine.
To get the ball rolling, the department has set its sights on popular tourist spots like Juhu, Dadar and Girgaum Chowpatty. “In phase I (to enforce FSS), which is now complete, our target was to register the vendors with the FDA. Now we are focussing on hygiene.
We will be organising a workshop by the end of this month to inform vendors about the standards they have to adhere to. They won’t be given time to adopt hygiene norms, as they have already had that,” said Suresh Deshmukh, joint commissioner, FDA (food).
Deshmukh added, “We intend to turn sellers hygiene-conscious by making aprons, gloves and hats mandatory. We will accept no excuse. Those who don’t follow the norms will be fined. These are tourist places and we want to build up the image of street food vendors here.”