Soon, a mobile app to feed the hungry in city

Chennai: After Amma canteens, the state will soon roll out one more initiative to feed the poor – a mobile app that will bridge the gap between wastage and necessity of food.

The state food safety department, along with Coimbatorebased organisation No Food Waste, is undertaking trial runs of the app which will geo-tag hunger spots in cities based on crowdsourced information. Food business operators, including caterers, retailers and pushcart and vegetable vendors, can use their food safety registration or licence numbers to be a part of the initiative.

State food safety commissioner P Amudha said the department would tie up with No Food Waste, which, since its launch in 2014, has helped save nearly 1.34 lakh kilograms of food that would have otherwise been wasted. “They have the technical knowhow and we maintain a record of licenced food providers – both necessary for the app,” said Amudha.

The Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011, mandates a licence for any food business with an annual turnover of more than 2 lakh. Those with a lower turnover register with the state food safety department. According to ennumeration carried out by the government in 2017, there are 5.43 lakh food business operators in the state, with Chennai having the highest at 32,002. Of these, nearly 50% are licensed.

Padmanaban Gopalan, a cofounder of No Food Waste, said although the organisation runs an app, the new one will help them overcome a few shortcomings. “Authentication has been a problem for us,” said Padmanaban. “We test if the procured food is stale, but we don’t know if the kitchens are following safe food practices. This is where the government’s network will help us,” he said. Every business operator will have a personal dashboard to check how much food they have saved.

Padmanaban said the new app, will enable the public to alert the state if they come across hungry families. “People can also pre-register their wedding feasts. Our volunteers will collect the excess food,” said Padmanaban.

No Food Waste made its foray into Chennai on Friday. State food safety officials took a salary cut to contribute towards buying two vehicles for the organisation. The vans will operate in Kodambakkam, Vadapalani, T-Nagar and Saidapet.