THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The food safety department has made food safety training mandatory for employees of shops that were closed for not following the guidelines of the Food Safety Standards Act. The training followed by Food safety training and certification would help the employees to know more about food safety and improve their operations, said health minister Veena George.
The department has made it a precondition for all shop owners and employees to undergo training to restart the hotels closed down due to violation of rules.
The department has already given training to 110 employees of 35 hotels that were closed down in Thiruvananthapuram. In the training, the officers also explain the reasons why the shop was closed and what are the measures to address it.
The training aims at creating awareness about guidelines mentioned in schedule 4 of the FSSAI. As many as 785 shops have registered for food safety hygiene ratings issued by the department.
The department keeps a list of the shops with the rating certificate on its website. “We will soon launch a mobile application which will have hotels in the nearby places rated according to hygiene. It would help the public to know which hotels are the most hygienic,” said the minister.