For denizens who do not eat fast food from roadside stalls, citing lack of proper hygiene, this initiative by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will come as a piece of good news.
Stalls will now provide quality food and maintain proper hygienic conditions apart from seeing to it that adulterated food is not served thanks to implementation of the Central government's Food Safety and Standard Act (FSSA).
The civic body began registration of food stalls on Wednesday. Health officials undertook a drive telling vendors to check the hygiene level maintained by them. As part of the drive, a team of 15 health officers distributed registration forms to food stall owners at Law Garden and Manek Chowk - two areas with a large number of food stalls.
"Under the Act, street food vendors/hawkers must be registered to carry out their trade. The aim of our drive was to have all roadside food stalls registered under the Act. The owners of food stalls have been issued forms and have been asked to submit them filled with documents," an AMC health official said.
Explaining the importance and benefit of registering under FSSA, the health official stated that if any customer lodges complaint of food poisoning after consuming street food and if the vendor is registered, then FSSA can investigate such complaints.
"We checked the working conditions at the stalls and ensured that vendors and their assistants wore gloves and caps while working at the stall,” said Dr Bhavin Solanki, in-charge medical health officer.
Under FSSA, all street food vendors need to maintain a certain quality level of fast food they offer to customers.
