Food street certified by FSSAI at Hitec City

Hyderabad: After Ahmedabad and Mumbai, Hyderabad will have a food street certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) opposite Shilparamam near Hi-Tec City.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has recently completed a certification programme for street vendors on use of specific cooking oils, preparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes at particular temperatures, and keeping the food items covered.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a corporation official said even municipal administration and urban development minister K.T. Rama Rao has been impressed by a demonstration arranged by GHMC on hygienic street food. The minister wanted that food streets be located in all the zones of the corporation for the benefit of people.

Serilingampally zone is slated to have the city’s first green vending street food zone. The food street at Shilparamam will be located near the underpass since it would not interrupt the traffic in the area and be pedestrian friendly.

The initiative for having food streets had been taken following a study conducted by third party agency Ernst & Young (EY) LLP.

When asked about the failure of implementing the street food vending policy in Hyderabad so far, the corporation official claimed that HMRL and traffic police have played spoilsport in this regard. While HMRL disturbed the location of vending zones, traffic police did not agree with remaining locations citing traffic issues.

The GHMC official said the corporation has distributed identity cards to street food vendors so that people could check their authenticity.