Delhi gets first Eat Right station

The Eat Right Certification is an initiative of FSSAI

After Mumbai, Delhi also gets a proud moment with announcement of the ‘Ist Eat Right Railway Station’. Anand Vihar Terminal Railway station (ANVT) has been declared as the 1st Eat Right Station over Northern Region with an audit score of 92 percent, highest across Pan-India.

The Eat Right Certification is an initiative of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) where detailed guidelines & norms have been established for certifying any station as an Eat Right Railway Station.

The certification process involves a series of activities including pre-audit checks, inspection, training & audit of the station complex as well as the units where the food is handled viz., Catering stalls, Kiosks, Quick Food Joints, Food Plazas etc

The process starts with registration of ‘intent for the station’ to achieve an ERC certification with FSSAI. It is followed by the collection of primary data followed by pre-audit checks.

The vendors & the food handlers are given a basic level training on food safety, hygiene and sanitation practices under the Food Safety and Training Certification (FoSTaC) programme.

The audit involved various parameters to assess the practices & processes followed at the Anand Vihar station. The Broad criteria involved assessment of two areas namely:

1. Station Complex
2. Individual Food Units viz., Catering stalls, Kiosks, Quick Food Joints, Food Plazas etc.

For the Station Complex, the aspects related to infrastructure, quality of drinking water for passengers, facilities of public washrooms, cleanliness etc. were covered. For the Food Units, below parameters were assessed, checked & audited:

• Food Safety & Hygiene Check – Aspects covering infrastructure, operations control, maintenance & sanitation, personal hygiene & training etc.
• Healthy & Local Food Monitoring – Aspects related to availability of healthy, fortified, local & seasonal food
• Food Waste Reduction & Management

Hindustan Unilever was involved in the process as an implementation partner & RIR certification as auditors. The detailed post-audit of ANVT was undertaken by the 3rd party auditors on 15.01.2020 and ANVT was rated in the “Exemplary” category with a score of 92.08 percent with a rating of 5