Street food vendors unaware of training by FSSAI

The residents of Ranchi will now get hygienic and nutritious food served by hotels and street food vendors. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has made food safety training and certification mandatory for all food traders in the City.

As per a directive issued by Sub Divisional Officer Lokesh Mishra, street food vendors caught selling any food items without undergoing the training programme will have their license cancelled. The training programme started on December 24 and is being imparted at IACT near Guru Nanak School.

However, street vendors in popular market areas are not aware of any such programme. While some are keen to receive training others don’t want to lose out on business because of it.

Santosh, a food truck owner in Morabadi was unaware of any such notice being issued. “I don’t have any information about the training programme and no notice has been given by the authorities till now. However, there is a lot of competition so if I do go for the training, I will lose out on the day’s business.”

Savan, a momo stall owner is not too keen to be a part of the training. “I have not heard of any such training programme. I am already trained in my work and have worked in a hotel earlier before opening this stall, so I don’t need any more training whatever it is.

The progamme will be of around four hours with about 40 food vendors in one batch. Under the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) there are about 500 food vans and more than 10,000 food carts set up. The food department has set of target of training about 9,000 such vendors in the first phase.

“The main objective of this project is to ensure that healthy and hygienic food is what reaches the customers. The FOSTAC- Food Safety Training Certification trainers will impart training to manufacturers, whole sellers, retailers, meat shop owners and street food vendors.

Under this an annual health check up is also included to ensure that they do not have any communicable diseases,” said Food Safety Officer (FSO) Dr SS Kullu.

The training will include information about packaging, serving clean food, and storing perishables in a proper way. Trainers will also impart information about the proper use of organic food colour, ways to reuse and recycle cooking oil.

The district administration and the department in an attempt to reach out to food vendors and suppliers is conducting a mobilization drive and localities covered include Chutiya, Kanke and Hinoo.

The programme is divided in three categories.

The basic and advanced courses are charged at Rs 600 and Rs 800 respectively while for the street food vendors it is for free.

Dr Kullu further added that registrations for the course can be done online and offline. Those with a turnover of 12 lakh and above need a license while for others registration is mandatory.