As many as 100 food streets across the country will be adopted during the first phase of the Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan, an initiative to develop a culture of food safety in the country. The campaign, planned by CII and its partners, including consumer organisation VOICE, and National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), was rolled out in July this year.
"In phase one, the target is to adopt 100 food streets across the country, generate awareness on food safety among 10,000 consumers and build capacity on good hygiene and manufacturing practices by training employees of 300 SMEs towards food safety," CII said.
Under the campaign, nation-wide sensitization sessions on cleaning, hygiene and sanitation for safe food, walkathons and media dissemination programmes for consumers and street food industries will be organised across the country. CII is also organising Food Safety Advocacy and Capacity Building programmes across Delhi, the North-East, Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Jamshedpur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Siliguri, among others.(Foundation Stone Laid for Mega Food Park in Andhra Pradesh)
The industry programmes are designed to upgrade supply chain participation across the food industry to international standards. More workshops on good agricultural, manufacturing and hygiene practices in the North-East, in partnership with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, are also on the anvil, starting mid-October.
The broader objective is to enhance consumer awareness on food safety aspects like labels, storage conditions and related hygienic practices. Street food vendors, schools and colleges are also part of the programme. Food service providers, including the Railways, street vendors and mass caterings, will be sensitized on how to produce and serve safe food.