The Hindu      18.03.2016   

Making street food safe in country’s cleanest city

The Central Food Technological Research Institute
(CFTRI) on Thursday threw open its doors to street vendors of Mysuru to
share its expertise on making street food safe and hygienic.

In
its bid to impart scientific knowledge and skill to ensure clean, safe,
nutritious and affordable street food here, the scientists from the
premier food lab held a workshop and demonstrated practices that can be
adopted in street food vending.

Over 100 street food
vendors took part in the workshop organised jointly by the Mysuru City
Corporation (MCC) and the Mysuru Street Vendors’ Association. The
programme was aimed to benefit both street vendors and consumers.

Inaugurating
the workshop ‘ensuring safe street food in India’s cleanest city’, MCC
Commissioner C.G. Betsurmath said the MCC had identified hawking and
non-hawking zones in the city, and street food vending in the city’s
core areas had been restricted.

Announcing that the
MCC would soon come out with a new street food vending model, the
Commissioner asked street vendors operating in non-core areas to ensure
safe and hygienic food, and clean vending spots. He said Mysuru had
bagged the cleanest city tag for the second time in a row and vendors
had the responsibility of keeping the city clean with proper waste
disposal system. They should remember that Mysuru is a tourist city and
they can play a key role in serving them clean, and safe food.

Now
that the plastic ban had come into force in Mysuru, the MCC
commissioner asked the vendors to comply with the new plastic rule and
warned of action if they flouted the norm.

In his
address, CFTRI director Ram Rajashekaran said street vendors were
educated on food safety aspects. The motive behind the workshop was to
train the trainer, create awareness and disseminate basic and essential
knowledge to street vendors.

Despite ensuring tasty,
affordable and diverse food to the consumers, street food vendors are
often unaware of the best hygienic practices. “We educated them on how
to regulate waste generation in their business and adopt eco-friendly
models in their business in the wake of the plastic ban,” he said.

There
were presentations on hygienic practices and FSSAI regulations for
street vendors; design aspects for making a model street vending cart;
MCC initiatives for street vendors and in the end there was an
interactive session between scientists and street vendors.

On
the occasion, AcSIR students released findings of a survey on the
status of street food in Mysuru. The street vendors received a kit
containing an apron, cap and gloves and food safety information book.