Thiruvananthapuram: If all goes as per the plan of the food safety department, the city will soon have a ‘safe street food zone’. With the department also planning to introduce apps to rate all street food shops in the city, the concerns regarding the quality and hygiene of street food will also be addressed. The changes will be as good for customers as it is for vendors in the city, which has around 250 street food joints, 180 of which are members of the association of vendors.Food safety commissioner M G Rajamanickam said that the department had held a discussion with mayor V K Prasanth to identify stretches which could be declared as ‘safe street food zone’. “Once we get a street exclusively for street food joints, we could ensure a standard for hygiene, infrastructure and quality. Only vendors who agree to our norms will be allowed to function and thus we could ensure standards,” he said.Earlier, there was a proposal to start a street food zone at Manaveeyam Veedhi. However, the project did not take off due to protest from the part of various groups which had argued for keeping the stretch as a cultural corridor.The plan for rating street food joints has been conceived to provide customers a say on the functioning of street food joints, which the department believes will make vendors more responsible. The department has contacted Kerala Startup Mission to develop an app that could rate various factors of all eateries. “The KSUM will inform startups about our demand and we hope they will come up with a suitable app that will enable customers to give rating and reviews,” Rajamanickam said. The food safety department will provide another rating after checking infrastructure, hygiene, medical certificates of staff, waste management etc. “Our rating will not be based just on infrastructure. We will check all aspects from farm to fork,” Rajamanickam added.Abbas A, the owner of Irani Fast food joint, which has been functioning at Vellayambalam for around 25 years, welcomed the decision to introduce rating. “Rating is a welcome move, especially when you are keen on hygiene. When we started the business, there were only 3-4 street food vendors in the city. Now the association of street food vendors itself has over 180 members,” he said.Street food vendors are one particular group which often escape the radar of the food safety department due to the difference in work timing. To bring them ‘to the mainstream’, food safety commission has invited all street food vendors for a meeting a month ago. “Around 60 street food vendors attended the meeting. We have started giving them training on safe cooking practices. Medical certificate has been made mandatory for all staff. The street food vendors have to exhibit these certificates at the shops,” Rajamanickam said.

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