Mumbai’s street hawkers start receiving free training on healthy, hygienic cooking
The training is being conducted by National Association of Street Vendors of India (Representational Image, Courtesy: Pinterest)
The Maharashtra government has roped in an NGO to conduct campaigns for street vendors in Mumbai, in which they are trained in preparing food in a hygienic manner.
“As part of the campaign, our team is imparting training to the street vendors on healthy cooking of edible items,” said Shailesh Adhav, Joint Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
On March 27, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched a mobile van, donated by a corporate, and new vehicles of the FDA at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.
The programme was initiated by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), an NGO working for the cause of hawkers in the country.
“We keep educating the street vendors on how to make their products more healthy and hygienic by inviting them to our workshops. But this time, we thought to reach them by going door to door and it has yield very positive response. Our officials are explaining them various procedures like using less oil while cooking, cleaner water, checking the purity of the raw materials,” Adhav said.
At the end of two-hour-long training session, the vendors are given a certificate as well a kit containing an apron, gloves, and caps.
The training is centered around preparing and selling quality food, said NASVI Senior Manager Arvind Shukla.
Earlier this month, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) also issued a notification to the state commissioner of food safety in all states for starting a campaign to create awareness about the disadvantages of simultaneous handling food and currency notes or coins, which are often contaminated by pathogens or various micro-bacteria.
“The handling of currency with unclean and soiled hands, use of saliva during counting and storage under unhygienic conditions leads to its contamination with a harmful micro-organism.” the notification said.
The FSSAI recommended that gloves should be worn on the hand that is used to handle food, while bare hands should be used to deal with currency.
