The recent unfortunate incident of food poisoning at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay campus that affected around 600 students might be shocking but the reality is that most of us can fall victim to such poisoning since almost 70% of Mumbaikars eat out at least once a day.
Most of us eat out while travelling while others visit food vendors outside colleges and offices. Others think they are being ‘relatively safe’ when they eat at the office or college canteen. But as the IIT-B incident has shown, even accredited caterers don’t necessarily follow best food hygiene practices.
Studies show that more than 80% of food-borne illnesses come from attendants who prepare and handle the food. However studies have also shown that by following some extremely basic food safety practices — wearing gloves and caps, using different knives to peel and cut vegetables, separate cleaning cloths for different purposes — food poisoning cases and food-borne illness can be cut by a whopping 95%.
But the ugly truth is that most food caterers and vendors do not handle food hygienically, posing a major risk to the health of students and customers who expose themselves to a number of diseases in the duration of a single meal.
Ashwin Bhadri, head of business relations, Equinox Lab, a professional agency for food safety and hygiene auditing, admits eating out is a huge gamble. “Any food item that is not heated or sanitised properly before serving is unsafe to eat. And most street food staples, including chaat, do not go through either of these two processes.”
According to Bhadri, proper washing and sanitising of vegetables is very important. “Vegetables and fruits if not washed or sanitised with chlorinated water, can be contaminated with pathogenic organisms like E Coli. Water-based chutneys can also be a source of several water-borne diseases. To avoid this, potable water should be used and chutneys should be stored in clean containers.”
Bhadri added that the way food is stored should also be paid attention to. “Raw chicken and meat should be stored in the freezers with temperatures below minus 18 degrees Celsius. The cooking temperature of raw chicken should be above 600 degrees Celsius.”
Bhadri’s Equinox Lab has worked with students in the past to train food vendors in basic hygiene that, as mentioned previously, can reduce instances of food-borne infections by a huge 95%. Along with DNA, over the next few days, Equinox Lab will train the staff of 20 college canteens in basic hygiene practices. If you want your college or institution to be part of this training programme, write to us at hygiene.dna@gmail.com.
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