The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) will jointly organize a national street food festival from 25th to 29th of December. The 11th National Street Food Festival will be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and more than 75,000 people are expected to attend the event.
During the festival, FSSAI will also organise its 2nd edition of the ''National Eat Right Mela'' for promotion of healthy foods. CEO of FSSAI, Pawan Kumar Agarwal said, "Through this mela, we want to give a unique & distinct identify to our local as well as street food".
He said, "We are also providing a platform to the packaged food industry to exhibit innovation in terms of newer areas like reformulation of food products, healthier food variants & sustainable and enhanced packaging solutions".
He added that there will be a complete package for people i.e entertainment, education and delicious street food in this food festival. The theme of this year's food festival is ''healthier diets'' where the idea is to focus different initiatives of FSSAI around healthy eating via gamification.
Food Safety exhibition area will focus on demonstration of rapid food testing kits or devices.
In addition, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on 26 December 2019 will launch the ''Network for Scientific Co-operation for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition'' (NetSCoFAN) - a network of research & academic institutions working in the area of food as well as nutrition.
When asked about the festival, Head of Programs at NASVI, Sangeeta Singh said, "Over the years, this festival has helped mainstream different street vending communities. We expect a footfall of about 75,000 during the 5-day festival".
