Food matters: Focus on improving facilities in restaurants

All the frequent raids on restaurants are leading up towards the launch of the city Corporation’s ambitious ‘Subhojanam’ project

A squad led by Mayor V.K. Prashanth inspecting a restaurant in the city.

It was not long back when food safety raids in restaurants meant a one-off occurrence, which used to happen once or twice a year.

In the past few months, however, the city Corporation has initiated numerous such raids that most of the restaurant owners are now on the guard, almost always. Officials of the health wing of the Corporation attest to the fact that the quantity of stale food seized from restaurants has been coming down progressively over the past few months, although the number of restaurants being raided has increased.

Now the focus is on improving the facilities and the surroundings in which food is prepared. At least some of these restaurants have been negatively affected at getting their names included in the raided restaurants list, even though they did not have any stale food items stored. Yet, most of them are cooperating with the steps being taken by the local body now to ensure safe and clean food as they have been taken into confidence about the step ahead.

All the frequent raids are leading up towards the launch of the city Corporation’s ambitious ‘Subhojanam’ project, which is meant to tackle the issue at its source, rather than leave it at the namesake raids. In discussions with experts from the field, the health wing of the civic body realised that they had to start from those handling the food, if they had to make a difference. Within six months of the launch of ‘Subhojanam’ in August this year, it will become mandatory for restaurants in the city to have trained food handlers in all its sections, be it cooking or supplying or packing.

Health check-up

All the existing workers in the industry will have to first undergo a health check-up, followed by which they will be provided ten to sixteen hours of training on how to handle food hygienically.

“All those handling food items in restaurants will be provided training sessions on personal hygiene, proper handling of food items, waste management and segregation, and also basic inter-personal communication. In a rough survey conducted recently, we have found that around 50% of the workers in the industry are migrants. So, a working knowledge in Malayalam language will also be blended with the training module. Once they complete the training successfully, they will be given identity card for a trained food handler. It will be useful for them even if they leave the current job,” says Anoop Roy, a health wing official.

The training process will begin from those working in wayside eateries, and will over its various phases cover all the restaurants. When a new worker joins a restaurant, they will have to be straight-away sent for the training session at the Corporation. The training programme will be anchored by the health wing staff mainly, with support from the Food Safety department, hotel management institutions, and the Literacy Mission.

In recent raids, the health officials have found that only a handful of the workers in restaurants have the mandatory health cards. Now, there is a long queue at the Corporation office to get health cards.

Waste segregation

Waste management is one of the major issues that plague the sector. The city Corporation had recently introduced a by-law and facilitated waste collection from restaurants through nineteen firms, some of them located in the outskirts of the city, and some in Tamil Nadu. Much of the waste from restaurants has been unsegregated even now, with food waste mixed with plastic and other waste. As some of the firms who collect the food waste use it for feed in farms, unsegregated waste is useless for them. With Corporation officials giving strict instructions, some of the restaurants now have two separate bins for segregated collection of waste. As daily collection has begun, there is now no reason for the restaurants to store old food items, an excuse which they often use during raids.

The Corporation has also begun following up strictly, after the initial raid and issuing of notices, to ensure that the changes that were demanded have been made.

“Earlier, there was hardly any follow-up, and in many cases, they would be able to reopen their shops without making drastic changes. Now, they have realised that this is no longer the case as we have gone back and checked all of the raided shops to ensure that corrective steps have been taken. With ‘Subhojanam’ project, we will have a check-list of requirements for restaurants, which will be helpful during raids. The raids are not meant to trouble them or find fault with them, but to help make them aware and improve the quality of their food and services, which will, in the end, be beneficial to them, as it would attract more customers,” says S.S. Minu, Health Inspector.

If all goes well, it could be a win-win for the customers as well as the restaurant owners.