Visit India’s First ‘Clean Street Food Hub’ In Ahmedabad
Sep 12, 2018

So many of us are guilty of gorging on mouth-watering street food items from across the street. However, many of us are even more guilty of falling ill after binge eating them.

Recently, a survey discovered that respondents had nominated Kolkata’s street food as the best. With its phuchkas, kathi rolls, jhal muri and other plethora of food delicacies, we also want to crib about our personal hygiene simultaneously.

India is known for its street food. Majority of the country’s population is addicted to roadside tea, corn, aloo tikkis, omelette, chaat-papri and recipes from 28 different states and union territories.

In order to make sure that street-food lovers are able to enjoy the best experience, the food regulatory body of India, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had started the process of certifying India’s best street food-places in December 2017, the Hindustan Times reported.

Now, FSSAI has declared Kankaria lake area in Ahmedabad as India’s first ‘clean street food hub’. Reportedly, the regulatory body will designate 150 such streets across the country in the next one year.

Kankaria lake dates back to the 15th century, that houses around 66 famous street food vendors that serves lip-smacking food to 12 million people each year. The parameters for certifying it as the cleanest street food hub include best practices like garbage disposal, maintaining personal hygiene, demarcating cooking and non-cooking area, working street lights, pest control and overall cleanliness among other things.

FSSAI in collaboration with Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration had conducted a pre-audit of the street earlier this year. At the time of pre-audit, suggestions were given for improvement and training of the food vendors was also conducted.

Pawan Agarwal, chief executive officer (CEO), FSSAI told HT, “There is an 80% cut-off and anything above that is outstanding. These people have done a fabulous job in reaching up to that level, and now it is about maintaining the standard. The state food regulator will be conducting regular inspections to keep a check.”

The ‘Clean Street Food Hub’ initiative is aimed at raising hygiene levels of major street food hubs ensuring preservation of India’s rich cultural heritage at the same time.  The idea is to revolutionize street food vending in the country, to make it popular among domestic and international tourists and to also make sure that Indian street food vending will be looked up with high esteem at a global level.

Source: India Times

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