Food stalls owners seen working with gears provided by Nestle who is collaborating with Government department to promote food safety and hygiene.
Morung Express news
Kohima | December 6
Prioritizing food safety and hygiene during the Hornbill festival, State Food Safety Authority under the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Nagaland is providing food stalls with aprons, head cover, towels and gloves to the stalls catering to food ‘to enable them to maintain hygiene.”
Speaking to a Food technician, Kenyuni, deployed by the department, she explained that during this edition, the authority apart from giving demonstration on testing of food and giving awareness, it has collaborated with Nestle to provide the gears.
We are collaborating with Nestle and the company is sponsoring gloves, towel, soaps, head cover and aprons. Till now they have covered 94 stalls in and around the festival area, the technician said.
The team is also checking and putting reminders to those stalls that are not maintaining the standards. These drives are led by Food Safety Officers, the Technician informed.
“Our team members are going and checking if the stalls are adhering to the rules and regulations set by the authority.”
The team comprises around 20 people and goes around inspecting the food stalls on a daily basis.
We collect the name of the stalls and contact number so that maximum of them follow the rules in place.
As simple as it sounds, many food stalls are however found not adhering to these guidelines and made more challenging as there are no penalty or strict instructions put in place.
Generally, the food safety authority said, more awareness is required so those catering to food services practices it as a responsibility rather than an imposition.
The authority under the Department of health & family welfare has set up a stall to provide public awareness & are giving demonstration of new tools such as testing of oil with an equipment called Testo, other demonstration include water, milk, food & vegetables etc to test contamination or levels of chemicals/fertilizers or level of chemical intoxication.
With a mobile lab, the facility also caters to extending awareness to different places especially to food stalls, restaurants etc.
