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Need close watch on city restaurants’ hygiene

Trichy: While food safety officers are focussed on the quality of food at the road side eateries, consumer activists insist on keeping a close watch on the restaurants in Trichy to ensure that quality food is served to people. 

A surprise raid on May 16 by the food safety team in eight restaurants in Trichy city brought to light the unhygienic and unhealthy ways of keeping cooked food in refrigerator for using them the next day. The raid unearthed cooked mutton, chicken, rice and Parotta which are kept in freezers in all the eight restaurants.

During the raid, the team seized over 15kg of meat kept in cold storages. The food safety officers (FSOs) said that all the shops keep meat in freezers. The officials also cautioned people not to consume stale food as it will lead to food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhoea and other health complications. 

There were no such surprise raids in the past three months. Secretary, Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu, S Pushpavanam asked the food safety officers to frequently monitor the restaurants. "Monitoring of kitchens in the restaurants should be tightened, he said while recalling an incident of stacking cement bags in the kitchen of a leading restaurant in Trichy a year ago.

Designated officer, food safety and drug administration department, Dr S Chithra promised that the department will conduct raids at regular intervals. "The surprise raids will start again soon. Offenders will be booked as per the law," she said.

Clean street food hub coming to Trichy

Trichy: Trichittes will soon have a ‘clean street food hub’ with the food safety department working on converting a stretch of VOC Road behind the Central bus stand into one.

Under the permanent project of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the food safety and drug administration department has identified VOC Road as a potential hub for the project.

According to FSSAI, the initiative will help upgrade food streets and build trust among consumers to have a safe and hygienic local eating experience. Most people avoid the roadside eateries only because of its unhygienic conditions. FSSAI also believes that it will make the local food popular among the domestic and international tourists visiting Trichy.

"Roadside eateries along the VOC Road could be an ideal choice for implementing the project. Hence, we have chosen the place and started working on it before rolling out the scheme in a month," designated officer (DO) of the department in Trichy Dr R Chithra told ToI on Tuesday adding that the project will be extended to all the 17 blocks under its department in Trichy.

Food safety officers and outsourced private agencies will guide 25 vendors in the stretch to maintain their roadside eateries clean and hygiene. The eateries run by around 75 vendors in three shifts for breakfast from 5 am to 12 pm, lunch from 12 pm to 5 pm and dinner from 6 pm to 12 pm remain popular among the travellers visiting Trichy Central bus stand.

With a slew of guidelines for the location, personal hygiene, solid waste management and several other aspects, the stretch could become a model for all the roadside eateries if they comply with the guidelines. "Our duty is to ensure that the guidelines laid down are being followed by the eateries. Food safety officers will monitor them regularly and sort out discrepancies, if any," said Chithra.

Before the commencement of the project, an agency will conduct an audit in the stretch to check the criteria following which permissions may be granted to the food safety department to have the hub in the area.

Welcoming the move, Trichy District Pushcarts Vendors Association district president R Ganesan said the food safety department should set up a toilet facility for both the workers and the customers besides providing continuous water. "We request the corporation to also maintain cleanliness in the stretch," said Ganesan.

Social worker in Trichy Paul Guna Loganath said that though it is a welcome move in terms of food safety, it will be a hindrance to the buses entering the Central bus stand. "Hygiene of most of the roadside eateries is questionable. The food safety hub could bring about a good change," he said.

Honour for ‘No Food Waste’ founder

Padmanaban Gopalan, founder of No Food Waste, receiving the National Youth Award from Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi on Monday. 

Padmanaban Gopalan gets the National Youth Award for the year 2016-17 from Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Kiren Rijiju

Padmanaban Gopalan, founder of No Food Waste, received the National Youth Award for the year 2016-17 at a function held in New Delhi on Monday.

Speaking to The Hindu over phone shortly after receiving the award, Mr. Gopalan termed the award as a “great honour” for volunteers of the organisation, who are mostly youngsters. “I'm just representing [the volunteers],” he said.

The number of active volunteers involved with No Food Waste were around 3,200 spanning across 16 locations in Tamil Nadu and West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Gopalan said. The chapters are present in Chennai, Tiruppur, Erode, Salem, Tiruchi and Krishnagiri.

Founded in 2014 in Coimbatore, No Food Waste is a food recovery and food waste management network that focuses on collecting surplus food from weddings, parties and other places to distribute among the people in need. In nearly five years since the inception, Mr. Gopalan felt that the awareness regarding prevention of food wastage has increased. “Earlier, we had [to face] a lot of tough situations to recover the food,” he said, as people were not forthcoming to donate the surplus food.

Mr. Gopalan said that the organisation has received support from the government, particularly the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the municipal corporations in the cities where No Food Waste is currently operating. “We are working in parallel with both the government and the community,” he said.

Though focusing on recovering and recycling of surplus food, the organisation is hoping to roll out a technology soon to reduce food wastage “at the production and logistics level,” Mr. Gopalan said. The award was presented by Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju.