Indian Railways/IRCTC: IRCTC has joined hands with SCI to certify the process of cooking, transportation and storage of vegetarian food for trains bound for religious places.
Indian Railways/IRCTC: IRCTC has joined hands with the Sattvik Council of India (SCI) to certify the process of cooking, transportation and storage of vegetarian food for trains going to religious places . The catering arm of the railways has invited third party audit of its basic kitchens to ensure a vegetarian environment in cooking such meals there, officials said, adding that the move is aimed at ensuring that not only the interested passengers are served pure vegetarian. Rather, the process of cooking food should also be sattvik.
IRCTC spokesperson Anand Jha said, “Satvik certification is the process of certification of making vegetarian food as per SCI standards under the third party audit of Bureau Veritas. There are travelers who demand vegetarian food cooked in a vegetarian environment like field, utensils etc. In such a situation, it is expected to help in gaining the confidence of the passengers about the vegetarian food being cooked and served.
“It does not necessarily mean that there will be any restriction in cooking and serving non-vegetarian food,” Jha said. This certification is simply a step towards certification of the current standards under which vegetarian food is cooked and served.
An SCI release said the NGO launched the Satwik Certification Scheme and the world’s first passenger audit module. It also said that it has been started with Vande Bharat Express running between Delhi and Katra and later it will be expanded to 18 other trains. This will be mainly for trains with shrines.