FSSAI declares First Clean Street Food Hub at Kankaria, Ahmedabad

FSSAI

New Delhi, 07th September 2018: Reinforcing its commitment to ensure food safety and hygiene across the country, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) declared Kankaria Lake, Ahmedabad, as the first Clean Street Food Hub. ‘Clean Street Food Hub’ initiative is envisaged to raise the quality of street food vending to the level of food courts and established hotels and restaurants. Kankaria Lake, with around 66 street food vendors serving cuisines like pao bhaji, chinese, bhel puri, ice cream, khichu, popcorn, dhokla, masala dosa, pani puri etc., caters to approximately 1.2 crore people every year. At the launch event, Guidance Document on Clean Street Food Hub was released and plaque for Kankaria, Lake unveiled.

To implement this project, FSSAI along with FDCA, Gujarat and DNVGL Business Assurance India Pvt. Ltd initially conducted pre audit visit of this identified street. At the time of pre-audit, suggestions were given for improvement of gaps and consequently training of street food vendors was conducted by the Food Safety Awareness and Training Organisation (FSATO) with special attention to the areas where improvement was required. Later on, final assessment for declaring it as “Clean Street Food Hub” was conducted jointly by the team of FDCA, Gujarat and DNVGL. As per final audit report of DNVGL, Food Safety Commissioner, Gujarat (FDCA) recommended the street of Kankaria Lake, Ahmedabad meets 80% of the specified benchmarks of basic hygiene and sanitary requirements and hence can be awarded as ‘Clean Street Food Hub’.

As a part of this initiative, FSSAI has framed a guidance document for upgrading the existing infrastructures of street food clusters across the country and provide safe and hygienic local eating experience. This document provides benchmarks for basic hygiene and sanitary requirements, standard operating procedure (SOP), audit checklist, details of partners and list of identified potential hubs which will help in implementation of this initiative. An important part of this initiative is training of food handlers involved in the street food vending for good hygiene practices to ensure food safety while preparation and serving of food.

Key officials present at the launch event included Pawan Agarwal, CEO FSSAI; Shri Poonamchand Parmar, ACS H&FW; Madhavi Das, CMSO, FSSAI; Vinod Rao, Secretary, Primary education Department; Shri V. G. Vanzara, Additional Secretary, H&FW and Dr. H. G. Koshia, CFS, FDCA.

Speaking on the occasion, Pawan Agarwal, CEO FSSAI said, “We all Indians are fond of street food, and yet not very comfortable taking it for reason of poor hygiene and quality. He hoped that ‘Clean Street Food Hub’ initiative will raise hygiene standards and revolutionize street food vending in the country making it popular and ‘must have’ for both domestic and international tourists while also preserving rich culinary heritage of the country. The initiative will nudge 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.”

To take the baton forward, Shri P C Parmar, announced that the four cities including Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Dahod will be the next cities to adopt the initiative and convert the street food clusters in these cities to Clean Street Food Hub.

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