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Ahmedabad’s Kankaria Lake declared FSSAI’s first Clean Street Food Hub
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Monday, 10 September, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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FSSAI recently declared Ahmedabad’s Kankaria Lake as the first Clean Street Food Hub. The locality has about 66 street food vendors serving street foods like pao bhaji, bhel puri, ice cream, khichu, popcorn, dhokla, dosa, pani puri, etc. to approximately 1.2 crore people every year. At the launch event, a Guidance Document on Clean Street Food Hub was released and a logo for the locality was unveiled.
The Clean Street Food Hub initiative was envisaged by the apex regulator to raise the quality of the food sold on the streets to the level of those sold in food courts and established hotels and restaurants.
To implement this project, FSSAI, along with the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat and DNVGL Business Assurance India Pvt Ltd initially conducted a pre-audit visit of this identified street.
At the time of the pre-audit, suggestions were given for improvement of gaps, and consequently, the street food vendors were trained by the Food Safety Awareness and Training Organisation (FSATO), with special attention to the areas where improvement was required.
Following this, the final assessment prior to declaring it a Clean Street Food Hub was conducted jointly by the team of FDCA, Gujarat and DNVGL.
As per the final audit report of DNVGL, H G Koshia, food safety commissioner, Gujarat FDCA, recommended that the street of Kankaria Lake, Ahmedabad, met 80 per cent of the specified criteria for basic hygiene and sanitary requirements, and hence, could be awarded the Clean Street Food Hub title.
As a part of this initiative, FSSAI has framed a guidance document to upgrade the existing infrastructure of street food clusters across the country, and provide a safe and hygienic local eating experience.
This document provided the benchmarks for basic hygiene and sanitary requirements, the standard operating procedure (SOP), an audit checklist, the details of partners and a list of identified potential hubs which will help in implementation of this initiative. An important part of this initiative is the training of the food handlers involved in the street food vending for good hygiene practices to ensure food safety while preparing and serving the food.
On the occasion, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, said, “I hope that the Clean Street Food Hub initiative will raise hygiene standards and revolutionise street food vending in the country and make it more popular and a must-have for both domestic and international tourists, besides preserving the rich culinary heritage of the country. The initiative will also bring the street food vendors into a food ecosystem where the Indian street food vending will be looked up with high esteem at a global level.”
The Government of Gujarat also announced that four cities, namely Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Dahod, will be the next to adopt the initiative and convert the street food clusters in these cities to Clean Street Food Hubs. V G Vanzara, additional secretary, health and family welfare, Government of Gujarat, and Koshia were present on the occasion.
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