Food Safety Training For Street Food Sellers

[george]

Food safety training for street food sellers

BANGKOK: -- The Thai government plans to launch a training programme for street sellers to help boost the quality of their food and ensure the safety of local consumers.

Stall holders who take the course will also be offered access to the soft loan programme of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank), Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan told TNA.

The government is using the SME Bank to offer soft loans to small stall holders in fresh markets or street sides in order to improve the quality of their produce and satisfy the sanitation laws.

The cabinet recently approved almost six 6 billion baht for the soft loan scheme.

The Public Health Ministry and the SME Bank are discussing the criteria for the programme.

Street stall owners who finish the training programme could get between 5,000-10,000 baht loans to invest in equipment and raw materials.

Those who sell fresh food, including pork or fish, could each get a 100,000 baht loan to purchase high-quality refrigerators to keep their produce fresh.

Restaurant owners will get 500,000 baht each.

The rate of interest will be fixed at 4-6% a year over a three year period.

In the initial phase, the Public Health Ministry expect to extend credit to 50,000 sellers, out of the total of 200,000-300,000.

--TNA 2005-02-17