Hygiene lessons for vendors soon
Bhubaneswar: Throwing caution to the winds, people have started crowding street food vendors in the city again. But, amid the pandemic, are the vendors adhering to the safety and hygienic standards?
Doctors said eating cold and uncovered food increased exposure of people to the coronavirus. But there is hope, too. All street food vendors will soon get online lessons on maintaining hygienic standards of food. Vendors who don’t have access to smartphone or other gadgets to receive the e-training will be called in batches and imparted the lessons offline.
The initiative is part of The Eat Right Movement of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said a Bhubaneswar Municipal Commission (BMC) officer. City health officer, BMC, B K Mishra said, “Under the programme, all street food vendors will be taught about ensuring safety and hygienic standards of food. Even restaurants and fruit vendors will be covered under this programme in phases as their needs differ.”
Doctors said people are prone to catching the coronavirus by eating unhygenic street food. Items like gupchup, chat, samosa, alu chop, dahi vada and fruit juice are being sold without minimum safety measures. People are seen crowding vendors without maintaining social distancing norms and consuming food which is cold and exposed to the elements. “Most street vendors are not conscious about selling hygienic food. So it is very risky to eat such food as the cases of coronaviurus are showing a rising trend. Most city vendors do not possess hygiene certificate from the civic body,” said Krutibas Parida, medicine specialist.
Manpower crunch has prevented the BMC from launching a crackdown on unhygienic food sellers. There is only one food safety officer in BMC and he is doubling up as the officer for Khurda. “Due to staff crunch, checking food safety of vendors is not 100%. There is scope for further improvement,” admitted the city health officer.
Under the Eat Right Movement, experts and agencies that have expertise in measuring food safety standards will be roped in to impart classes to the vendors.
Medicine specialist Bijay Mishra said, ”Maintaining food safety is a big issue, particularly during a pandemic. Street vendors do not maintain even minimum hygiene, let alone maintaining heightened hygiene in the wake of coronavirus.”
To improve public health in India and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases, FSSAI launched ‘The Eat Right Movement in 2018. But the movement could not be launched in many states in right earnest due to different issues. During the time of the launch, food industry, public health professionals, civil society and consumer organisations, influencers and celebrities came together on a common platform and pledged to take concrete steps to amplify The Eat Right Movement in the country.