The Maharashtra State government has issued an order regarding food safety standards while preparing and serving the food in all hostels and residential schools across the state, run by the State’s Social Justice department. Pune has over 20 such hostels.
The directive was issued by the Social Justice and Special Aide Department on January 7 under the Central Government’s Food Safety Rule.
The Government Resolution (GR) mentions, “All hostel head should check safety standards as mentioned in the order and submit a report to their respective department heads. Department heads should conduct frequent meetings and review the situation.”
The GR also mentions certain sanitary and hygienic requirements to which food business operators should conform. ‘Premises on which food is prepared should have an overall hygienic environment. All new units should be set up well away from environmentally polluted areas.
There should be adequate space for manufacturing and storage, enough lighting and ventilation, with no flaking paint or plaster,’ the GR says.
‘Floors, ceilings and walls must be maintained — they should be smooth and clean,’ the GR adds.
Besides this, the government also has guidelines on the food preparation area, hand-washing facilities, toilets, personal hygiene, transportation and handling of food, raw materials, cross contamination, stock rotation, thawing of frozen products and others.
Rakesh Vitkar, in-charge of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)-run Dr Babasheb Ambedkar student hostel claimed, “We have a capacity of 400 students.
We are already maintaining hygiene while preparing and serving food. However, we will go through the government order and see if anything is lacking. We welcome this move by the government. It will help to guide hostels on maintaining better hygiene.”
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