For scores of students staying in hostels, bachelors and
many families, the wayside “Thattukadas” have remained a favourite,
despite the innumerable fashionable joints that have sprung up in
various parts of the city.
Food served hot and tasty
and affordable and safe — because it is prepared in limited quantities
inside homes — has been the USP of these eateries. Despite occasional
complaints, the small-time vendors have for long served a requirement
for cheap and tasty dinners for night owls and film-goers.
With
the Food Safety and Standards Act being strictly implemented in the
State, food safety officials have managed to register a good number of
these vendors as food business operators. “The food served by
‘Thattukadas’ is safer than what is served in many other eateries
because no storage is involved. They serve food cooked on the spot and
finish off whatever raw materials or food prepared for cooking that they
bring with them every evening. The problem is not with their food but
with the environs in which it is cooked and served,” Commissioner of
Food Safety Biju Prabhakar says.
“Most of them set up
shop near some waste dump or over open drains, because it is convenient
for them to throw away waste water. Cooking in unhygienic environs is a
violation of the Act. Another potential problem is with regard to the
safety of the water they provide to customers, for drinking as well as
for washing. There are also issues in the case of bigger wayside
eateries, where the food handlers and those engaged to serve food often
do not follow hygienic practices,” he says. Food safety officials have
initiated awareness classes for “Thattukada” owners on food safety
issues and how food should be handled safely. The vendors were brought
together with the help of SEWA, and more such classes would be held.
Most
of the small “Thattukadas” serve standard home-cooked fare while less
than five per cent of these joints serve non-vegetarian fare. Eggs are
an integral part of the fare offered by all, and one complaint which
reached food safety officials was about the quality of the eggs.
One
idea that Mr. Prabhakar has put forth is that safe zones be created for
wayside vendors of food. The government can earmark areas where good
lighting and safe water can be provided, where the vendors can set their
carts and sell food. He suggests that Chala is one area, which can
remarkably be turned around into a food street as in say, Bangkok, by
evening, as most businesses here shut shop by the end of the day and the
area is practically empty.
He has mooted that mobile
fast food vendors be encouraged to be more hygienic and a stamp of
approval be given to those units which follow the 30-point guidelines
drawn up under the Food Safety Act.
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