THIS is a first for Goa and India. The VM Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality education (VMSIIHE) at Manora, Raia, is in the news for bagging the coveted Eat Right Campus certification from FSSAI. It is the first time a hospitality institute of Goa and India has obtained such a certification with a 5-star rating.
Reportedly, the prestigious certification is given under the Central government’s Eat Right Campus initiative of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which has been promoting safe, healthy and sustainable food practices in educational campuses, workplaces, hospitals, tea estates, etc, across the country. The bottom-line objective being to raise consciousness about the food we must eat to promote the health of people as also the earth, and also to promote social and economic development all around.
Says VMSIIHE’s Chef Sebastian Breitinger (Professor of Culinary Arts), “This certification is a formal endorsement of the cutting edge institutional systems and practices already in place at the VMSIIHE. The extensive certification process was carried out by the institute in assistance with Indianeers Food Safety Management, an empanelled agency and training programme partner of Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) authorised by the FSSAI.”
A team 21 food handlers from various departments were trained as part of the certification program, to improve processes related to documentation of food, as well as build up a collaboration with food suppliers in order to ensure efficient traceability of sourced goods.
Interestingly, VMSIIHE has already taking an interest in food wastage and put in place safety precautions against Covid-19 on its campus. A dynamic poster campaign highlight the perils of food wastage and how to control the phenomenon. An idea of weighing food leftovers and putting up the statistics on notice boards is being implemented — to make all conscious of wasting food, motivating them to stop indulging in such wasteful behaviour.
Needless to say VMSIIHE Director-Principal Prof Irfan Mirza, while accepting the certificate at the hands of the FDA team at a felicitation, took justified pride in the institute having qualified for the Eat Right Campus certificate.