The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Maharashtra is deciding to initiate a series of food safety awareness campaigns till March 2021 under the Eat Right Challenge, a startup by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Under the categories such as- Registration, Licensing, Surveillance and Enforcement Drive (All), Capacity Building and Certification (Choose any three), Eat Right Food Environments (All), Changing Food Choices, and Innovative Activities, the FDA Maharashtra will conduct awareness initiatives.
Shashikant Kekare, Joint Commissioner, Food at Greater Mumbai, Maharashtra informed- “We are running webinars continuously to aware the public about food safety. At present, we are putting efforts on Eat Right Challenges. We have planned about this campaign and it will be implemented until March 2021. Apart from this, our FBOs are doing field work even during the pandemic by running audits, sourcing samples from in and around Maharashtra to make sure that the public is safe.”
In Registration and Licensing Drive, it will have full focus with the game plan of running Licence/ Registration camp on the 2nd fortnight of every month. In the Surveillance drive, they will run 6 or more drives/ 1,200 samples with the game plan of Conducting Surveillance drive on the 3rd week of every month. This drive comprises food articles such as- Spices, Milk, Beverages, Vegetables and Fruits, Sooji/ Atta/ Maida or Edible oil. The Enforcement Samples will gather 15 samples per FSO every month in accordance with the action plan of Dadar lab.
Inspections utilizing FoSCoRIS will have 100% of high risk+ 100% of medium risk + 10% of low risk, with the game plan of managing training of FSOs. The special camps for consumer awareness comprising food testing with 30 and more (50 participants) have been scheduled for November and December of this year.
FoSTaC will provide coaching to about more than 2,000 food handlers; coaching will be run with the assistance of HUL. The Hygiene Rating will have more than 1,000 facilities which constitute café, dhaba, bakery, hotel, restaurant, and mithai. The Hub Certification- street food, vegetable markets, places of worship will have more than 10 hubs. The places of worship considered are Swaminarayan Temple, Siddhivinayak Temple, Iskon, and Gurudwara.
RUCO, No Food Waste Certification will have 100 units in one/both the initiatives and they will also be taking suggestions from Muenzer Bharat Pvt. Ltd, Navi Mumbai. The Eat Right Tool Kit- training of ANMs/ ASHA Workers/ Anganwadi workers will have 100% of front running workers in all three classes.