Now, safe and hygienic street food

Street food has become an integral part of life in many cities, including Mysuru.

Street vendors will get an apron, gloves, caps, sanitizers and an information booklet at a workshop

The Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) is lending a helping hand for making street food in the country’s cleanest city safe and hygienic.

With street food being an integral part of urban lifestyle, CFTRI, as part of its outreach programme, has joined hands with the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) and the Mysuru Street Vendors’ Association and formulated a unique programme for the benefit of both street vendors and consumers in the city.

Despite ensuring tasty, affordable and diverse food to consumers, street food vendors are often unaware of the best hygienic practices. The challenges for the policy-makers are to ensure that street food vendors maintain quality and hygiene of the food delivered to consumers, CFTRI said.

Initially, a study was undertaken by the AcSIR (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research) doctoral students of CSIR-CFTRI to assess the hygiene amongst street food vendors in Mysuru.

Inputs from around 200 street food vendors along with consumers were gathered using a questionnaire.

The findings, along with the best practices for hygienic, safe food, will be presented at a workshop on ‘Ensuring Safe Street Food in India’s Cleanest City’ on Thursday at the institute. C.G. Betsurmath, Commissioner, MCC, will inaugurate the workshop. Ram Rajasekharan, director, CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru, will preside.

The participants, around 100 of them, will be provided with a basic kit consisting of apron, gloves, caps, sanitizers along with a relevant information booklet, CFTRI said in a release. The workshop aims to shed light on issues such as the common problems faced by street vendors, maintenance of hygiene in and around vending spots, empowering street vendors with basic knowledge about food safety and so on.

Prof. Ram Rajasekharan said CSIR-CFTRI would like to impart its scientific knowledge and expertise for ensuring clean, safe, nutritious and affordable street food in Mysuru by creating awareness and disseminating basic and essential knowledge to street vendors, making them responsible food handlers, especially in the context of the city having been declared as the cleanest city in India for the second straight time.