Government says it is serious about food safety

NEW DELHI: Food and consumer affairs minister KV Thomas said that the government was serious about ensuring food safety and standards for street food vendors.

"The government will focus on providing minimal check points for ensuring safety of street foods by assuring food security for a large number of rural, urban and migrant populations in terms of hygiene and quality," he said.

He said that the Bureau of Indian Standards has so far formulated about 1,000 Indian Standards in food products and food safety which includes the international benchmark IS/ISO 22000: 2005 'Food Safety Management Systems'.

"We are serious about drawing guidelines to maintain a hygienic environment throughout the food chain that is suitable for production, handling and provision of safe-end products for human consumption," he said.