Since the time of inception, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has taken utmost care in providing clean, hygienic and nutritious mid-day meal to the children of Government schools. Over the years of service, Akshaya Patra has equipped itself with latest technologies and processes to enhance food safety measures. Each of the Akshaya Patra kitchens at 24 locations follows standard food safety and manufacturing practices.
Whether it is a centralised kitchen unit or
decentralised, each employee is adheres to the operational manual of the
Foundation. Measures like maintaining personal hygiene, quality check during
procurement of raw materials, quality maintenance during storage of raw
materials, quality and safety during cooking, safety measures during
transportation and delivery, post-delivery quality check processes like audits
and feedbacks are mandatory and routine tasks at each Akshaya Patra kitchen.
Usage of Stainless Steel 304 vessels, sterilisation of all vessels, equipment
and delivery vans, customised meal delivery vehicles, continual improvement
methods like Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma and ISO 22000:2005 certification of 11
kitchens and continued efforts for certification of the remaining kitchens are
measures taken to ensure that food prepared at Akshaya Patra kitchen are
nutritious, hygienic and tasty.
Moving forward in the
path of providing quality mid-day meal, Akshaya Patra recently inaugurated its
first Food Safety and Quality Control Laboratory in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. This
lab is sponsored by the Jamsetji Tata Trust and is exemplary of a philanthropic
and strategic partnership. Akshaya Patra’s Food Safety and Quality Control Lab (FSQC Lab) aims to
assess food products from pre-production stage to post production stage. It is
equipped with state-of-the-art testing facilities with technologies like the
Atago make table top refractometer to analyse total soluble solids, fat purity,
adulteration of oil etc. and the Shimadzu make spectrophotometer to evaluate
DNA/protein concentration, absorbance, transmittance and the like. It also
houses latest technological equipment for measuring microbial count.
The setting up
of this specialised lab was a joint effort with technical assistance received
from the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru. The
inauguration of the lab was graced by noted dignitaries – Dr. Sanjiv
Phalsankar, Programme Director, Tata Trusts; Dr. Alok Srivastava, Senior
Principal Scientist, Department of Food Safety and Quality Control Lab;
Representatives from the Food and Drugs Control Administration, Government of
Gujarat; Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation;
Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice - Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation and
Jaganmohan Krishna Dasa, Unit President, Gujarat. Thanking all the support partners,
Madhu Pandit Dasa said that this lab is a step towards ensuring further hygiene
and quality of prepared meals and further meeting the food safety standards.
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