It is the continuous endeavor of Indian Railways to provide quality and hygienic food to passengers. Whenever any instance of serving of substandard quality of food is noticed or observed, appropriate action is taken against the service provider.
As per Catering Policy 2017, IRCTC has been mandated to provide catering services on trains. Further, IRCTC has engaged 44 private service providers for providing quality and hygienic food in trains.
Following mechanism has been put in place by IRCTC/Railways to monitor catering services in trains and Kitchen Units:
- To ensure centralized monitoring of the kitchen activities, CCTVs have been installed in 39 Kitchen Units. Sharing of live streaming of the Kitchen Units through the website of IRCTC has been made operational.
- To ensure compliance of Food Safety Norms, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) certification from Designated Food Safety Officers of each catering unit has been made mandatory.
- Food Safety Supervisors have been deployed by IRCTC to monitor food safety and hygienic practices. Food samples collected by Food Safety Officers/Supervisors are sent to the nominated accredited Laboratories under the Food Safety & Standard Act for analysis and testing. Penalties are imposed in cases of detection of unsatisfactory food samples.
- Examination of quality and hygiene of food is done through Third Party Audit. The customer satisfaction survey is also conducted through Third Party Agencies.
- Onboard supervisors have been deployed by IRCTC on the trains for regular monitoring of the catering services.
- Regular and surprise inspections are conducted by Railway officials including Food Safety Officers.
- Monitoring and supervision of catering services through the operation of centralized Catering Service Monitoring Cell (CSMC) toll-free number 1800-111-321, Rail Madad, Twitter handle, CPGRAMS, E-Mail and SMS based complaints redressal.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
