Kolkata: Providing minimum basic infrastructure food traders to trade hygienically and bring it under the Ambit Food Safety Certification not only can cause quantum changes in collapsed street food safety standards but also positively have an impact on the health of some lakh people.
Who has street food at least five times a week.
This is an inference taken from field studies on Kolkata street foods conducted a year ago by researchers from three universities – Binghamton, Monash and Bocconi.
Overall, 681 food vendors from Ultangga, Dalhousie, Gardens, Indian Museum, Belowaghata, Victoria Memorial, Park Circus, Rashbehari, Ballygunge and Behala, who had previously attended training sessions and follow-up, in research and cleanliness included in this study.
This study revealed that despite realizing the need for increased hygiene while doing business and was trained on how to do it, very few who practiced what they had learned.
While this discovery is not new because it has been frustrated by many non-governmental organizations who have done workshops for years to change the behavior of street food vendors only to see them never translate into practice, research by Researchers of Sulagna Mookerjee, Denni Tommasi and Gianmarco Daniele Reveal the reason behind their distinctive behavior.
First, the lack of basic infrastructure such as clean water, the exact disposal of food waste and electricity in their places do business inhibit their ability to translate learning into action.
Second, many vendors do not consider incentives to produce safer foods because the improved quality will be difficult to observe in practice, and therefore they will not be valued by consumers.
Third, consumers in this sector may not have a high demand for hygienic food.
A study of 1,480 consumers between June and August 2019 revealed that while they value food security and are willing to pay more for it, most cannot distinguish contaminated foods from safe.
Also, many have other considerations such as variations offered by vendors.
“This finding implies that training is not enough to grow major changes in food security, indicating that information on vendors is not the main obstacle in this sector.
What is needed is a more active role by local authorities, both in terms of providing access to easier Infrastructure and impressive regulations to mandate safer practices.
Bringing vendors under sort of food security certification such as Indian Food & Standard Security Authority (FSSAI) can lead to adoption of hygienic practices that are faster because customers can distinguish who is certified, “said Sudipta Moitra , Coordinator of the Gana Project Unnour Parshad (GUP), NGOs which are local implementing partners in this study.
While GUP, in partnership with Ndita and FSSAI, has conducted training and certification for 68 vendors in the Salt Lake Sector V, set to take other projects funded by the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) who will try to plug in infrastructure gaps by providing certification Clean water and FSSAI to other target groups next year.