President Pranab Mukherjee today said while new safety standards for street food is an important step, small vendors should not find these guidelines “intimidating” as food businesses are mainly run by small and cottage scale units.

Food and Consumer Affairs Minister K.V Thomas today released safety standards to ensure hygienic conditions for street food vendors. He presented the first copy of these standards to the President.

Addressing a conference on food safety issues, Mukherjee said, “The Indian standard on basic requirements for street food vendors is an important step – especially in the context of the significant growth in the street food sector.”

“It has important economic and nutritional implications for our urban populations as street foods are an accessible and affordable option for a sizable percentage of our working population,” he said.

Mukherjee, however, cautioned that since substantial majority of food businesses are small and cottage scale units, “they should not be intimidated by the standards that are set for them or find their implementation to be too complex.”

Instead, he suggested, awareness should be created among these street food vendors that improving safety would increase their profitability. Apart from that, there must also be a channel for addressing their genuine problems.

Stressing that food safety standards are essential both for manufacturers and consumers, he said the importance of consumer education in the prevention of food-borne illness is another universal imperative.

On new risks due to globalisation in food trade, Mukherjee said faster transboundary transfer of micro- biological and chemical hazards present a new set of challenges to food safety.

“These potential risks require robust preventive and curative capacities to be put in place to safeguard health of our population,” he observed.

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