Street food to soon become more hygienic

Tasty and easily available cheap street food offering a wide range of cuisine will no more be unhygienic as a team of experts are preparing a new model for roadside food vendors in the city.

Mobilising a group of 60 women street food vendors from different parts of Kolkata, two alumni of the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) have taken up a six-month project to promote environmentally conscious street food business.

Sharmistha Banerjee, head of the department of business management in Calcutta University, and social development specialist Diti Mukherjee, said efforts are being made to change the way vendors prepare, serve and store food.
 

"Safe and hygienically-prepared food made using environmentally sustainable methods can attract more customers and increase their business," Banerjee told PTI.

The team is working with vendors in Gariahat, Sealdah, College Square and Dalhousie Square whose businesses are adversely affecting the environment.

"It is a part of our social support system as their food is cheap, affordable and very easily accessible. But the problem is with the hygiene, sanitation and safety," said Indira Chakravarty, chief adviser, (water and sanitation support organisation) of the state department of public health engineering.