New Delhi: The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued an ‘Eat Right Certificate’ to Jail No 2 inside the Tihar Jail Complex in Delhi.
It is a recognition of food quality and hygiene which means that the prisoners will get quality food and the food items ready for sale in the prison also meet the hygiene and quality standards set by the food regulator of the country.
The process of building the Tihar Eat Right campus began in 2019 and the jail was the first in the country to launch such an initiative.
The certification process involved rigorous work and multiple levels of improvement based on FSSAI’s Eat Right Campus benchmark.
The process involved a pre-audit by a team from the Delhi Food Safety Department and a personal training partner, the Indraprastha Academy Foundation. The report presented detailed overview and recommendations for improving the level of protocols for sanitation, hygiene and food safety under FSSAI.
More than 950 prisoners, who were involved in factories and kitchens, were trained on the aspects of food safety, hygiene and sanitation.
“Standard operating procedures were created for various functions in food complexes including kitchens and factories. Neha Bansal, IAS officer and Commissioner of Food Safety, said, the Covid crisis slowed down the work, but it picked up pace as the situation improved.
The final audit was done by a third-party agency and requests for accreditation were sent to FSSAI.
“Tihar has always been close to my heart as I have seen it closely during my work as the DM of West District. I am glad that we have also contributed to the reform process for which the Tihar administration is working vigorously,” Bansal said.
“It is heartening to know that inmates are willing to undergo continuous training and be part of the correctional process,” said a prison official working on the project.
Director General of Delhi Prisons Sandeep Goel said: “We maintain high level of hygiene and proper food quality in all our prisons. It is a matter of great satisfaction and pride for us that our Central Jail No. 2, Tihar has been certified by FSSAI. We want all our jails to be recognized as such.”
Bansal said that work for certification of Mandoli and Rohini jails is still underway. The certification process for Mandoli Jail has also started and soon the certification process for other jails will also be started when they also qualify for the benchmarking process.
It is a recognition of food quality and hygiene which means that the prisoners will get quality food and the food items ready for sale in the prison also meet the hygiene and quality standards set by the food regulator of the country.
The process of building the Tihar Eat Right campus began in 2019 and the jail was the first in the country to launch such an initiative.
The certification process involved rigorous work and multiple levels of improvement based on FSSAI’s Eat Right Campus benchmark.
The process involved a pre-audit by a team from the Delhi Food Safety Department and a personal training partner, the Indraprastha Academy Foundation. The report presented detailed overview and recommendations for improving the level of protocols for sanitation, hygiene and food safety under FSSAI.
More than 950 prisoners, who were involved in factories and kitchens, were trained on the aspects of food safety, hygiene and sanitation.
“Standard operating procedures were created for various functions in food complexes including kitchens and factories. Neha Bansal, IAS officer and Commissioner of Food Safety, said, the Covid crisis slowed down the work, but it picked up pace as the situation improved.
The final audit was done by a third-party agency and requests for accreditation were sent to FSSAI.
“Tihar has always been close to my heart as I have seen it closely during my work as the DM of West District. I am glad that we have also contributed to the reform process for which the Tihar administration is working vigorously,” Bansal said.
“It is heartening to know that inmates are willing to undergo continuous training and be part of the correctional process,” said a prison official working on the project.
Director General of Delhi Prisons Sandeep Goel said: “We maintain high level of hygiene and proper food quality in all our prisons. It is a matter of great satisfaction and pride for us that our Central Jail No. 2, Tihar has been certified by FSSAI. We want all our jails to be recognized as such.”
Bansal said that work for certification of Mandoli and Rohini jails is still underway. The certification process for Mandoli Jail has also started and soon the certification process for other jails will also be started when they also qualify for the benchmarking process.
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