Corporation canteens serve it up, but lack licence

Mar 6, 2013 CHENNAI: Chennai Corporation, which used to inspect eateries across the city for food safety, should put its house in order. None of the 39 canteens recently launched by the civic body has a food safety licence. Another 40 such canteens will be added to the string on Wednesday.

The Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006, had set new licensing and registration norms for food business units in the country. The responsibility of food safety was taken over from municipal corporations and given to the state food safety department after the act came into effect. Eateries with a turnover of more than 12 lakh should obtain license from a designated officer and those below this limit should register themselves with the food safety officer, the Act states. However, of the identified 22,441 food outlets in the city, only 7,000 were enrolled with the food safety department. Following the poor response, the government has extended the deadline of license till next year. Data sourced by TOI from the food safety department shows that no budget canteens of the corporation has been enrolled with the state food safety department. Sources said that the canteen at the state secretariat and also the herbal canteen in Ripon Buildings are also not enrolled with the food safety department.

A senior food safety official said: "Food license is a mandatory requirement for all the food operators under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Several government canteens are also violators". The corporation is planning to start one canteen in each of the 200 wards of the corporation. The budget canteens have been selling idli (100gram) at Re 1, sambar rice (350g) at Rs 5 and curd rice (350 gram) at Rs 3. These places are being patronised mostly by daily labourers, migrant workers and slum dwellers.

When TOI pointed out the deficiency of licence, a senior corporation official cited the extension: "We have time till February 4, 2014. We will register before the deadline". R Desikan, founder trustee of Consumer Association of India (CAI) said the civic body should be setting an example by registering early.