Railway food safety checks are set to become more structured across trains and stations after the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Quality Council of India (QCI) to introduce independent third-party audits of railway catering facilities.
Under the agreement, QCI-certified professionals will inspect food stalls, canteens and mobile catering units operating on trains. The inspections will be conducted without prior notice at intervals of three to six months, according to the report. The stated objective is to improve compliance with food safety and hygiene requirements for the large number of passengers who depend on railway catering during their journeys.
The audits will use a digital application designed to record evidence during inspections. Auditors will be required to capture geo-tagged information, the time of the inspection and photographs. The digital process is intended to create a documented record of conditions at the location and reduce the scope for irregularities in reporting.
A digital report will have to be submitted within 24 hours of the inspection. If an audit identifies a quality or hygiene deficiency, the report says that penal or corrective action can be initiated against the relevant vendor. The supplied information does not specify the penalty structure or the authority responsible for approving each enforcement action.
The inspection framework will cover food preparation areas, serving processes and the handling and storage of ingredients. It will also examine the separation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food from the storage of raw materials through cooking. The reported requirements include storage at appropriate temperatures and measures intended to prevent cross-contamination.
Catering staff will be expected to meet personal hygiene requirements, including medical fitness and the use of protective equipment such as gloves and caps. The arrangement also includes attention to staff behaviour and the cleanliness of station-based food facilities. The report says future measures may include customer satisfaction surveys, infrastructure upgrades and specialised staff training.
The agreement places QCI in the role of an independent auditing agency while IRCTC remains the railway catering corporation responsible for the service framework. The use of surprise inspections and time-bound digital reporting creates a monitoring chain from on-ground observation to a recorded report and possible action against vendors.
For passengers, the immediate change is not the introduction of a new food service but a new inspection and documentation process covering food sold during train journeys and at stations. Its effectiveness will depend on how consistently audits are conducted, how deficiencies are followed up and whether corrective actions are recorded after vendors are found to be non-compliant.
The next operational steps identified in the report are the rollout of the digital audit process, inspections at railway catering locations and the submission of reports within 24 hours of each inspection. The agreement also provides for future work on passenger feedback, facility upgrades and staff training.
