Thiruvananthapuram: Health Minister Veena George on Friday urged everyone to cooperate in making Kerala a safe food hub. "By everyone, we mean the cooperation of each stakeholder, including hotels, restaurants, distributors and even aggregators. The government is planning to implement a massive action programme to make the state a safe food destination," said Veena.
The minister laid out a few of the measures the state government would soon implement, including ensuring license and registration for all food establishments as per the FFS Act (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), health cards for employees, besides providing them with mandatory training, hygiene rating, mobile app, awareness campaigns etc.
"All food-related establishments are bound to comply with the norms laid down by the FSS Act. Adulteration of food is a criminal offence. Violators will be met with strict legal action. Once the vendor's license is cancelled, they can only get it renewed following approval from the Food Safety Commissioner," said Veena.
She also said a special officer would be appointed at the office of the Food Safety Commissioner to expedite the follow-up legal procedure with regard to food safety.
The minister also warned that there would be regular and stricter inspections across the state from February onwards. She urged restaurants running without a license and registration to get it done at the earliest.
"Health cards will become mandatory from February 1. Failure to acquire one would lead to legal action, including the establishment being shut down. Every restaurant and eatery must designate one person for sanitation supervision. Eateries, when reopening, must ensure that all their employees receive food safety training, besides rectifying other shortcomings. Moreover, these establishments should be registered for hygiene rating within one month of reopening," said Veena.
She further said the Food Safety Department is implementing the hygiene rating system and the street food hub across the state. At present, 785 restaurants have received the department's hygiene rating. Details of these establishments are available on the website. "The mobile app too will soon be ready. It will be rolled out once the technical approval is received. Using the app, customers can choose restaurants as per its hygiene rating and can even use it to register complaints," said Veena.
She also informed that a five-member Special Task Force (Intelligence), headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Food Safety, has begun functioning in the state. "The task force has been formed to investigate and report on emergency cases like food poisoning and to take necessary follow-up action. They have also been given the responsibility to carry out confidential probes so as to prevent contaminated food from reaching the market," said Veena.
