Midday meals served in rural areas and urban areas in Jaipur are differeent as it is prepared by high tech machines imported from Japan and other developed countries in centralized kitchens of urban areas while in rural areas it is prepared by conventional methods.
Over six lakh children are served midday meals prepared in kitchens which are maintaining high standard of hygiene. The rest, 64 lakh children, are being served food prepared by women and cooks on school premises.
The centralized kitchens are run by five foundations, which prepare food with the help of machines and also by maintaining high standard of hygiene. TOI visited Akshaya Patra, where the food is prepared by machines. A Japanese machine, which produces 40,000 chapattis, is used to make 2.5 lakh to 2.37 lakh chapattis per day for 1.10 lakh children in schools and 20,000 meals for anganwadi centres.
“We are certified with ISO 22000 for our hygienic standards of kitchen. There are checklists for washing vessels in which food is transported, washing and cleaning vegetables, preparing chapattis, dal, storing raw material and also we have a lab for testing of raw material. We follow personal hygiene practices, pest control practices, storage practices, production practices and vehicle hygienic practices. Our workers are trained in kitchen hygiene,” Akshaya Patra Foundation president R Govind Dasa said.
After the Bihar tragedy, parents have started enquiring about the quality of food. Rajkiya Praveshika Sanskrit Vidhyalaya principal Vishnu Kant Sharma said, “Some parents came in the morning and asked about the quality of food. I made it clear to them that the food we serve here is of good quality and it is prepared in hygienic condition.”
Midday meal commissioner Pramila Surana claimed that the food prepared in schools are also of good quality as they are monitoring it properly.
src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Midday-meals-in-city-prepared-with-hi-tech-machines/articleshow/21155050.cms