Hotels form panel to study new food law

Mangalore Hotel and Restaurants Association has decided to form a core committee to look into the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the rules framed under it this year.Swarna Sundar, its vice-president, said the core committee would follow up on the matter.The core committee had 15 members of the association, which had more than 1,000 members from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. They include hoteliers, ice cream, and soft drink manufacturers and those who run bakeries. Mangalore had 150 members and they were all hoteliers.This decision was taken at a meeting of the association to discuss the Act here on Tuesday.The association had urged the Government to give the industry the infrastructure to check adulteration of food, he said. “Even the water which we get is not clean. Although we clean the water with water purifiers, the source is not ok, so why blame us?,” he said.A food safety consultant, Ananthaprasad, earlier addressing the members of the Dakshina Kannada Hotels and Restaurants Association, said they must get ready for the implementation of the Food Safety Act. He said that awareness and education about the Act was very important. He said that big and medium restaurants, hoteliers, small “darshinis”, and bakeries should make a task force and study the Act.The meeting was held in the context of notices sent to food safety officers (earlier known as health inspectors) that they should check the licences of hotels and restaurants and charge penalties from those not maintaining safety standards as defined in the rules and regulations framed this year under Act, said Devi Prasad, Secretary, Mangalore Hotel and Restaurants' Association.Mr. Ananthaprasad said since there was no infrastructure in hotels to test the quality, putting the onus on hotels and restaurants for safety of foods was not correct. The hoteliers were not consulted on whether or not they could implement the quality standards. The hotels and restaurants did not have the infrastructure or the money to implement what has been asked of them, he said.He told the members that they must keep records such as the source of the material they used in the hotels and the name of their vendors. “Please specify quality parameters, control the supplies,” he said.

source: thehindu.com