It is the continuous endeavour of Indian Railways to provide quality and hygienic food to passengers along with maintaining cleanliness in Base Kitchens and Pantry Cars. To ensure this hygiene and cleanliness of base kitchens/pantry cars, following measures have been taken by Railways:
- IRCTC has upgraded 46 Kitchen Units in the last two years.To ensure centralized monitoring of the kitchen activities, CCTVs have been installed in 39 Kitchen Units. Sharing of live streaming of the Kitchen Units through website of IRCTC has been made operational.
- To ensure compliance of Food Safety Norms, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) certification from Designated Food Safety Officers of each catering unit has been made mandatory. Food Safety Supervisors have been deployed at Kitchen Units to monitor food safety and hygienic practices. Food samples collected by Food Safety Officers/Supervisors are sent to the nominated accredited Laboratories under Food Safety & Standard Act for analysis and testing. Penalties are imposed in cases of detection of unsatisfactory food samples.
- Examination of hygiene and cleanliness in Pantry Cars and Kitchen Units is done through Third Party Audit. Customer satisfaction survey is also conducted through Third Party Agencies.
- Regular and surprise inspections are conducted by Railway officials including Food Safety Officers.
- Introduction of Hand Sanitizers in Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Duronto trains.
- Monitoring and supervision of catering service through operation of centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) toll free number 1800-111-321, Rail Madad, Twitter handle, CPGRAMS, E-Mail and SMS based complaints redressal.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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