Workshop for food vendors

A workshop on safe food preparation was organised here recently for food vendors by the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety Wing), and the Consumer Association of India, a non-profit group that promoted consumer awareness.

R. Kathiravan, Designated Officer, Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety Wing), urged the vendors to avoid using artificial food colours and refrain from selling products in the vicinity of toilets. The vendors were also requested to desist from using the same oil repeatedly and to buy only packaged quality oil for cooking. Further, they were also told not to hang chicken or fish from iron rods for display in their shops.

Around 50 vendors took part in the programme in which they were educated on the kind of locations they could sell food products, how to use water safely, and ensure hygienic conditions while preparing food items.

Food Safety Officers S.R. Gerald Sathiapunithan and K. Sakthivel handled the technical sessions. The participants were also given free aprons, supplied by the Central Government, besides a booklet containing the requirements for food operators as mandated under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The vendors were also given certificates.

K.K. Chockalinkam, Coimbatore regional coordination, Citizen Consumers Club, said that adulteration of food products was leading to food poisoning. Pointing out that the shops located on the roadsides were covered with dust rising from frequent movement of vehicles, he urged the vendors to cover the products.

100 Ahmedabad food joints get training to serve better

A coordination committee, appointed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has picked about 100 food joint owners and their employees in nine food markets of Ahmedabad to train them in preparing and serving food to their clients in a safe and hygienic way. They were imparted training at the New West Zone office of the municipal corporation here and given two weeks' time to show improvement.
Commissioner of Food and Drug Control Administration Dr H G Koshiya on Sunday said the vendors from the markets included the ones from Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden among others. "Our teams had visited these markets before calling them for the training and observed and photographed their way of operations. We imparted them training as per our programme and gave them complimentary kits of hand gloves, aprons and caps," he said.
"The FSSAI authorities were impressed by our efforts in the last one year. Their chairman, K Chandramauli, who visited the city, asked other states to follow suit," Koshiya said. "Till now, study teams from Bihar and Haryana have already visited the state and training has been started in some states already," he added. He said that in the later phases of training, the authorities will include non-vegetarian food markets like Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.
The coordination committee team trained the people connected with food joints in these markets in maintaining hygiene standards at the road-side stalls. Koshiya said strict action would be followed if the trainee vendors ignored the training instructions.
The participants were told to wear cap, apron and hand gloves compulsorily every time they served or prepared food articles to clients. They were also asked to undergo regular health tests. The training was imparted by Koshiya, deputy secretary Mahesh Soni and the AMC public analyst Atul Soni.