UT to grade eateries, hotels on hygiene

Ramkrishan Upadhyay   

Tribune News Service   

Chandigarh, September 24

Next time you go to any restaurant or hotel, you can judge the cleanliness of its premises by the grading displayed on a board. In a bid to improve hygiene in restaurants and hotels, the UT Health Department, in partnership with hotels, will soon start grading and ranking restaurants according to their hygiene standards.

Sources said the ranking would be based on scores obtained in an assessment. The Health Department has  already circulated a checklist  among hoteliers on the basis of which their  cleanliness  will be judged. The move is part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The pro forma distributed  among restaurants and hotels  contains 100 points. Teams comprising officers  of the Health Department  and representatives of the  hotel industry will be constituted,  which will judge them on the  basis of facilities  for which points  will be given. 

The focus will be on hygiene in the kitchen, washing room, food storage area and dining rooms. Gurvinder Juneja, secretary of the Chandigarh Hotel and Restaurant Association, said the  association had decided to honour those  who would bag the top three rankings.   

He said all hotels  would be given certificates and their grading would be decided on the  basis  of the points obtained by them.

Sukhvinder Singh, designated officer, Department of Food and Safety, said the  drive would generate  awareness among workers of the hospitality  industry  who prepare food  and "this will ultimately  lead  to a healthy society". 

Sources  said around 350  licences for food had been issued to hotels, dhabas  and restaurants  and all of them would be covered  under the  drive.