National campaign on to make street food safe

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 6: 

How safe is your roadside vada pao or gol gappa? To create nationwide awareness, a safe food campaign, ‘Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan’, has been launched by CII in partnership with National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE), and Cargill India.

At a time when food safety has become a burning issue and with the methods followed by the vendors being ‘very individualistic’, NASVI believes the campaign will create a stable eco-system for sharing best practices on safe food.

Though it is difficult to put a figure to the number of such vendors, NASVI is affiliated with over 880 city-based street food associations with over six lakh street-food vendors.

Supported by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, the campaign is targeted at consumers and food business operators, especially street food vendors. The focus will also be on sensitising food service providers, such as railways, those running midday meal schemes, and mass caterers, on food safety.

According to Arbind Singh, National Coordinator, NASVI, besides training the vendors and promoting the campaign in various street food festivals across the country, the association hopes to promote peer leaders who can propagate safe food.

“It is important for us to participate in initiatives that will help give a facelift to Indian street food, protect livelihoods of street food vendors as well as change the perception about street food in India,” he added.

The campaign will include food safety advocacy programmes such as consumer awareness training, food training programmes, workshops, seminars, short-term professional courses with partners, Safe Food Walkathons, street plays, quiz competitions, poster competitions, master classes, and thematic performances, among others, across cities.

Says Siraj Chaudhary, Chairman, Cargill India: “This initiative is aligned with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and will strengthen nationwide action on safe and hygienic food for all…

Chaudhary said that while it’s difficult to set tangible targets, the campaign plans to adopt 100 street food vendors, build awareness among at least 10,000 consumers and train the employees of at least 300 SMEs on food safety.

It will also work with various colleges and schools in the first phase.