Food safety champions

Chennaites should have tasted cookies, hot cakes or at least loaf of bread from Adyar Bakery, but the student members of Citizen Consumer Club, D.G. Vaishnav College, had the opportunity to visit their manufacturing unit to see how things work from the initial baking of bread to the final product of a rich creamy cake. We could see the raw material used, storage, types of utensils used, ventilation and hygienic practices followed in the unit. This was part of a four-day residential training organised by Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Consumer Association of India (CAI). This training-cum-workshop was aimed at creating an awareness on Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.
FSSAI, in association with CAI, has partnered with Consumer Club of D.G. Vaishnav College to train 20 students into Food Safety Champions (FSC). They will in turn conduct a mass awareness campaign in Chennai in February, 2013.
This residential training gave students an all-round exposure about the Act. This major responsibility of sensitising the masses about this new Act is now shouldered upon FSC, and the training is the first of its kind initiated by Government of India. As part of the training programme, we also visited Food Business Operators at the Elliot Beach and conveyed the importance of the Act.
The writer is a second-year M.Com D.G. Vaishnav College