Unhygienic street food flood city markets

| | Ranchi
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Unhygienic street food flood city markets

Sunday, 09 June 2019 | SHAILJA TIRKEY | Ranchi

The first showers of monsoon are no doubt a relief for people braving the intense summer heat. However, the rain brings with itself several diseases and infections. This leads to not only waterborne diseases but also diseases related to unhygienic conditions, especially when the population at large is crazy about street food that is not safe. Every now and then people consume unhealthy food served at the road side, which undoubtedly threatens health.

There is a huge list of mini food outlets serving a variety of cuisines now a day at food trucks and karts that are not always hygienic .Vendors selling cut fruits, ice creams and eatables outside schools and colleges are also very common these days. Consuming eatables sold by street hawkers under unhygienic conditions is equivalent to inviting trouble during this monsoon season.

The city’s street food acts as a crowd magnet for people passing by be it a kid or a grownup. There are several street vendors trying their best to grab the maximum crowd at their hatches. When asked to Surya, a vendor in Doranda about the food he serves, he said “I use gloves while serving and take proper measures for cleanliness while cooking.”

The setting running behind the beautified frame of a food truck or a street food vendor is ever ignored. The customers are shrugged being at stalls as they never go in the fact of contaminated water used or quality of raw food used for making the final dish. At times the vendors also use stale stalk of raw food and the foodie customer never gets to know.

Food, which consists of noodles, pasta or rice, involves a lot of water in its preparation. Water is used in almost every dish to turn its journey from the package to the plate. The ultimate reason why street food can never be listed as healthy is due to cleanliness issues and also the use of dirty water by the vendor. The vendors cannot every time invest a huge capital on the raw materials needed to prepare food at stalls. Their sticking to the minimum price for water and raw material has opened paths for people getting ill at times.

Julie Lakra, a customer when asked about the contamination at street stalls, said, “One should have a strong immune system to counter unhygienic food talking about water being one of the prior needs. Nobody is aware what kind of water a particular vendor is using but my fondness for spicy food made me stop at the stall.”

Another street food lover Prince Kumar said, “It is not always about unhygienic food the choice of food in monsoons also matters and one should have soups instead of chaat and pakodas as soups act as a hydrant during this humid weather”

Dr Sundaram Shri Harsh, Sr. Medical Officer, CGHS said, “During monsoon as the moisture in air stimulates growth and multiplication of many harmful micro- organisms, degradation in health is a common cry. Increase in the cases of waterborne diseases mainly affects youngsters as they are the customers at large at street stalls. Eating out can cause harmful diseases like food poisoning, diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera. Hand to hand contamination of germs causes another means, by which germs spread.”

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