Sri City, FSSAI to team up

Hyderabad: SRI City and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon enter into an agreement to work jointly in areas of food safety and nutrition, etc. RITA Teaotia, chairperson of FSSAI, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI visited Sri City on Friday. Interacting with the representatives of the industrial units on the 'Eat Right' India initiative of the Centre, she said: "Eat Right India movement is about creating a culture of safe, healthy and sustainable food."

Thanking Teaotia for giving the call to make Sri City an ERC campus, Ravindra Sannareddy expressed confidence that all the stakeholders of Sri City will take it as a challenge and definitely achieve the ER certification within four months. Reddy said: "Sri City will soon sign an MoU with FSSAI to bring synergies and collaboration in the area of food safety and nutrition eco-system in the campus."

She explained that the campaign covers three pillars - Eat right diet, Eat healthy diet, and Eat sustainably with a focus on local and seasonal fruits, water conservation and less plastic use.

Reminiscing her last visit to Sri City four years ago as Commerce Secretary, Teaotia said: "Great to see rapid development during this period, and the progressive and pragmatic sprit of the management."

Giving a call to aim for achieving 'Eat Right' certification (ERC) for the entire industrial city, which is a large geographical entity, she said, "the certification process involves a series of activities including pre-audit checks, inspection, training and audit of the establishments, as well as the units where the food is handled, such as kitchens of canteens, catering stalls, kiosks andfood plazas.The process starts with registration of 'intent for the organisation' to achieve ERC with FSSAI. It is followed by the collection of primary data followed by pre-audit checks."

The vendors and the food handlers will be given a basic level training on food safety, hygiene and sanitation practices, she added, while hoping that FSSAI's partnership with Sri City will be successful.

She further said: "I look forward to seeing the Integrated Business City as the first 'Eat Smart City' in the country. All the basics are already in place."

Muthumaran, director (southern region) and M Kannan, deputy director (southern region), FSSAI, Chennai, also took part in the meeting and explained procedures involved to achieve ERC.