Indian Railways

[Naresh]

<b>Railways to tickle your taste buds</b>

NEW DELHI: Peeved at the quality of meals served by the Indian Railways? Fret no more. The railways will soon initiate a massive exercise to audit food safety standards followed on various routes, train its staff and even modernise kitchens to tickle your taste buds in a whole new way.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is in talks with organisations like certification major TUV SUD South Asia, Vimta Labs, Accenture and KPMG for conducting food safety audits.

“This is a bid to ensure quality and hygiene of food served on the trains and at the railway platforms at various kiosks and the food plaza joints. We are in talks with a few organisations to conduct food safety audits on board the train and at the platforms to know what are the issues which need to be dealt with,” IRCTC chairman and managing director (CMD) PK Goel said.

The corporation will finalise the auditor by the end of this month and the random sampling of food items made and served by the railways on various train routes is expected to begin in March. The audit will cover food preparation conditions in the base kitchens — those which supply food to the train pantries — and the train pantry; hygiene followed by those who cook and handle food and the way it is served and stored.

“Quality monitoring is a key focus area and apart from the auditors, we have already appointed 100 quality inspectors who conduct 100 inspections on trains across various routes daily,” Mr Goel said. The railways have also kicked off a training programme for its 5,000- strong kitchen staff. The first batch of 25 people is being trained and another 250 people would be trained in the next six months.

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