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Health minister Veena George | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Thiruvananthapuram: Health minister Veena George has urged everyone to cooperate in making Kerala a place that ensures food safety. The minister sought the cooperation of other state government departments, restaurants and other eateries.
The government plans to initiate programmes and inspections to transform Kerala into a safe food destination. Veena George stated that the aim is to ensure food safety through the registration or licensing of food outlets under the Food Safety and Standards Act, ensuring employees have health cards, proper training, and others.
All establishments are bound to comply with the norms under the FSS Act. If the licence of an establishment is revoked, then the food safety commissioner should mandatorily inspect the place before issuing a renewed licence. Meanwhile, the decision is taken to appoint a special officer to hasten the legalities concerning food safety.
Health Minister also informed that strict inspections would follow in the state from February onwards. Outlets without registration or licence should take licence soon. Further, an employee health card is compulsory from February 1. Every establishment should assign one employee as a supervisor to ensure hygiene.
Training should be mandatorily given to employees while reopening outlets that were earlier closed down. These establishments should register for hygiene ratings within one month of reopening.
The details of outlets that have received the hygiene certificate from the food safety department will be available on the department’s website. The mobile application of the department is in the final stages and will soon be available for people. The users can find restaurants with hygiene ratings and file complaints through the app.
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