FSSAI has invited proposals for a special training drive under Food Safety Training and Certification programme and asked the interested agencies to submit their documents in support of the proposal by October 23, 2020, to the apex food regulator.
According to the FSSAI, the proposal was invited for selection of training partners empanelled under FoSTaC for training of food handlers working with anganwadi, government canteen and place of worship.
FSSAI intends to organise around 400 training sessions of basic catering under the FoSTaC programme that include both online and offline courses while the training needs to be provided in local language.
An official with the FSSAI says that the eligible partners need to have at least 5 trainers certified under FoSTaC and have provided at least 10 training sessions in basic catering.
Launched in the year 2017, the FoSTaC programme today has 3,39,698 FSSs across India who have conducted 15,109 food safety training sessions with 95,809 trained under Covid-19 safety training.
Ashwin Bhadri, CEO of Equinox Labs, which is also a training partner with the FSSAI under FoSTaC, says, “FoSTaC training was initiated by the apex body with a motive to establish uniform standards of food safety practices for all types of food businesses. FSSAI initially launched the TOT – Train the Trainer Programme which included FSSAI officials training the Trainers of different Food Safety Training Organisations in different courses. These FoSTaC training partners were then certified to conduct these training pan-India.”
“The training has thus empowered and alarmed the entire food industry to maintain transparency and implement uniform standards. It speaks of self -compliance amongst all the food handlers towards food safety and hygiene in the premises through effective training programmes,” he added.