Nestle to train street vendors to prepare food in hygienic manner

FMCG major Nestle India has launched a program to train 1,000 street vendors to prepare food in a hygienic manner across Assam in the coming months. For this CSR initiative 'Serve Safe Food' in Assam, the company has tied up with the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the state government and National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI). "This initiative is launched across Guwahati, Jorhat, and Goalpara to train 1,000 street food vendors.

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The project focuses on educating and training street food vendors on health, hygiene, safe food handling, waste disposal, and entrepreneurship," Nestle India Director (Corporate Affairs) Sanjay Khajuria told reporters here on Wednesday. This training will help the street food vendors to undertake measures such as usage of disposable gloves and personal hygiene that prevent the spread of foodborne diseases, he added. "It also helps in improving the livelihood of street vendors. The improvement in knowledge has been encouraging. We plan to impart training on more vendors next year after taking feedback from the current session," Khajuria said, adding the company has rolled out the program in Meghalaya too in North East. Since its inception in 2016, the project 'Serve Safe Food' has trained over 19,000 street food vendors across 17 states in the country.

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