FOOD REGULATOR FSSAI WANTS STAR RATING FOR RESTAURANTS TO ENSURE QUALITY

NEWDELHI: The country’s top food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has proposed that restaurants and cafés be rated based on factors such as hygiene and safety to ensure the trust of consumers.

“Like hotels, we plan to allocate star ratings out of six to restaurants and eating places on the basis of six hygiene parameters to promote the concept of offering clients a ‘responsible place to eat’,” said Pawan Agarwal, CEO of FSSAI.

The places will be assessed on six broad parameters: personal hygiene of the staff, healthy food on the menu, safe water-handling practices, effective complaint handling, kitchen visible to clients or kitchen visits, and leftover food management.

“An IT-based matrix has been developed and we are in the process of fine-tuning the project. This rating concept is quite common overseas. Our food safety officers will verify compliance but we plan to rope in a third party for independent audits,” said Agarwal. FSSAI has held consultations with stakeholders, including industry insiders, before going ahead with the plan that will be formally launched soon.

The e-commerce food platforms will also be asked to mention the FSSAI ratings of individual restaurants and eating places along with other relevant information on display.

“We will make it mandatory for these e-commerce food platforms to mention the ratings along with the usual information they share with consumers so that people can make an informed choice,” he said.

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, regulates manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food to promote health and safety of consumers.

The food regulator recently started the concept of food safety supervisers in all food businesses to ensure quality.

It is now mandatory for all caterers, manufacturers, companies transporting food items and retail outlets with 25 or more people handling food to have at least one superviser.