In a bid to provide clean and hygienic food on Indian Railways trains, the kitchen at Mumbai Central railway station has taken several steps. The base kitchen at Mumbai Central has been equipped with many modern gadgets. The railway station’s base kitchen supplies food to Rajdhani Express trains. On an average, the base kitchen at Mumbai Central prepares food for 2100 to 3000 railway passengers of the superfast train services, according to the Western Railway division.
One of the major initiatives taken by the Mumbai Central railway station kitchen to serve hygienic meals to passengers is that it has installed plastic curtains at entry and exit points for dust free and insect free environment. Another big step that would be much-appreciated by pure vegetarian passengers is that the base kitchen has kept a separate cooking section to cook vegetarian meals. Other than these measures, the railway station has also adopted modern ways of cooking food. The cooks have been asked by the station authorities to use masks and plastic gloves while preparing meals for passengers. Also, before the delivery of meals, proper packaging, as well as weighing of the food, are being ensured. Moreover, computerized labelling of packing details has been introduced.
The Mumbai Central railway station base kitchen now has 24 CCTV cameras for complete transparency and 24X7 monitoring. Also, industrial purpose pallets have been procured in order to avoid cross-contamination of food. Additionally, Western Railway claims that the station’s base kitchen follows all the 12 hygiene rules of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which are as follows:
Keeping the premise clean and having pest control regularly
Using potable water to cook food
Keeping hot food above 60 degree C and cold food below 5 degree C
Handling and storing veg and non-veg food separately
Storing of cold food at cool temperature
Using separate knives, chopping boards for veg and non-veg food items
Wearing clean cloths
Washing hands before cooking
Using water-proof bandage to cover cuts or burn wounds
Not handling food when unwell
Using clean and separate dusters
Keeping separate and covered dustbins for food waste