DINAKARAN NEWS

Food clubs in schools to fight junk food fad

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All government and aided schools in the state would soon have food safety clubs. The state food safety commissioner has issued a directive to the director of public instructions (DPI) in this regard.

According to a communique from the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights here on Friday, the food safety commissioner issued the directive, following an order passed by the child rights panel in this regard.

The panel had suggested that setting up of food safety clubs, among other things, would help resolve the rising popularity of junk food among schoolchildren. The rights panel said the food safety commissioner had intimated the panel that awareness programmes would be conducted in schools and strict vigil would be kept on junk food manufacturing units and distribution centres.

Zomato delists over 5,000 FSSAI non-compliant restaurants in February

Online restaurant guide and food ordering firm Zomato Friday said it has delisted over 5,000 restaurants in February for non-compliance with the hygiene standards set by food regulator FSSAI.

Zomato, along with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), is conducting audit of all restaurants listed on the platform, across 150 cities in the country, where it has presence, said a statement.

According to the company, “it has delisted over 5,000 restaurants found non-compliant with the standards set by the FSSAI for hygiene“.

Zomato CEO (Food Delivery Business) Mohit Gupta said: “We are adding 400 restaurants to our platform every day. So, it is crucial that our restaurant partners are compliant with regulations and hygiene standards.”

He further said: “For this reason, We have been re-evaluating all 80,000-plus restaurants listed on Zomato, helping them be compliant, and delisting those that have failed to follow regulations in spite of continuous efforts.”

Zomato is educating its restaurant partners to obtain a licence, as well as meet the necessary hygiene standards.

As a result, the number of compliant restaurants on the platform has increased by over 30,000 in the past six months, it added.

Zomato is a restaurant reviews, restaurant discovery, food delivery and dining out transactions platform providing information of over 1.4 million restaurants across 24 countries and serves more than 65 million users every month.