Commonwealth Games village kitchen gets operational

Three thousand and five hundred meals were cooked and served on Monday at the Commonwealth Games Village as the kitchen began functioning.

The organising committee (OC) is trying to get it fully operational for the 700 delegates from the participating nations who are expected to arrive on September 16 when the Village opens. While the menu was a simple vegetarian fare on the first day, the number of dishes is slated to go up as the Games take off.

Said a senior OC official, "The menu was vegetables, dal, chawal and parantha." The food, which was served to the OC staff and the contract workers in the kitchen, will be ramped up in the next few days, with desserts and more dishes being added. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be cooked everyday from now on for the OC staff and workers, with the kitchen churning out around 5,500 meals per day for the staff during the peak Games time.

Sources in OC said the kitchen and dining area is being given finishing touches like installing of coffee dispensers and drink vending machines (Coca Cola is the official Commonwealth Games sponsor). The kitchen, spread over 3,000 sqm, has been operational for around a week now, and is expected to reach a peak level of 30,000 meals daily from October 3. The workforce dining area, which is separate from the athletes section, will be open mainly for the OC staff.

The security personnel will also be served food from September 15 when Delhi Police takes over the venue. These personnel will be catered to by Agarwal Foods, the caterers for the workforce.

CWG 2010 catering contract enters penultimate phase

Awarding of Commonwealth Games 2010 catering contract is entering its penultimate phase. The upcoming Games are providing an unprecedented opportunity for the hotels to bid for the multi-crore catering contract with an opportunity to claim fame at an international event adding to their repertoire.

(Read: IRCTC bags Commonwealth Games catering contract)

The bidding process for the contract is still on and so far many hotels have bid for the same. The hotel groups in India are not revealing any information regarding the bidding though sources say that many hotels are still sending their responses to Organizing Committee's Request for Proposal (RFP) for the contract.

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Ajay Grover, head - catering, Commonwealth Games 2010, without disclosing the actual figures revealed that the contract will run into multiple crores. He said, "It is a moment that offers great prospects to the Indian hospitality industry for catering. The RFP would be accepted keeping in mind the techno commercial criteria. Various parameters would also be considered eg experience, varieties of menu, etc."

According to him, there would be 11 clusters in catering and each would be given out to one caterer. "It would also provide a consortium to work together as for one cluster there could be several sub-caterers. This would also facilitate a major shift in terms of approach and awareness in food and hygiene," Grover said. The event is also going to benefit the hospitality sector as it would create new benchmarks for all big hotels in India. "The successful Indian companies in the bidding process will come to know about the way big events are organised and how the catering format works. This would further generate awareness about food safety and standards. Moreover, the hoteliers would get acquainted to the global trends in new varieties of food which would help them come up with the same in their prospective areas," he added.

Speaking on the guidelines for catering, Grover informed that it would be on a B2B format and they want the best of hotels to come in for bidding. He said, "From supply chain management to consumption level, everything will be monitored in consultation with the health department of the government of India and third party, who will be certified auditors to do such kind of certification process." It was further said that global tenders had been floated to draw interest from international players having expertise in hospitality, in addition to domestic ones. Express Hospitality has learnt from its sources that apart from ITDC, Delaware North Companies, Global Infusion from UK, and Sodexho from France have been short-listed so far. On being queried about the same, Grover declined to comment.

Organic food on menu for CWG participants

Athletes, officials and all others dignitaries taking part in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi will be served 'Safe Food' - fruits and vegetables that are free of pesticides or insecticides. The vegetables and fruits are expected to be of supreme quality, rich in nutrients and taste good.

The Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) on Pusa Road is spearheading the initiative to produce organic food grown using a specialized technique.

"We are adopting 'Safe Food' technique to grow vegetables and fruits to ensure they are senior scientist at the institute.

Almost 8000 participant and one lakh people are expected to visit Delhi during the Commonwealth Games in October. The institute has the quantity in mind while planning the cultivation.

"According to our estimates, the daily consumption of vegetables will be 600 to 1,000 quintals and the daily consumption of fruits will be around 500 quintals," he added.

He said as foreigners preferred salads, there was a focus on cultivating some special varieties of salad vegetables, such as carrot, radish, baby corn, sweet corn, mushroom, beans, leafy vegetables, cucumber, potato, turnip, onion and ginger.

The specially grown fruits will include papaya, banana, guava and grapes.

The fruits and vegetables will be ready for consumption from June and will continue till the end of October. IARI's target is of an average 300 grams of vegetables per person per day.

For this, special field training is being imparted to farmers across the country.

The expert said normally grown vegetables may have arsenic content. Under the new system, the land for cultivation will be chosen carefully. It will be enriched with manure, not fertilisers. Care will be taken to provide the right moisture and temperature.

However, if need for pesticides arises, only organic substances such as neem seeds, neem leaves or neem oil will be used.

Methods such as light trap - in which pesticides are trapped with mercury lights - and pheromone trap, in which female insects are captured so that they do not multiply, will be used.

Checking Delhi Belly...

With Commonwealth Games fast approaching, Confederation of Indian Industry is launching an attempt to force Delhi's caterers to clean up their act and educate them on basic food hygiene. They are to conduct an audit of more than 800 cafes and restaurants close to the Commonwealth Games Village to assess where they need to improve.

The eating joints will be judged on parameters like maintenance and cleanliness, personal cleanliness of the staff, pest control and garbage disposal, food packaging, storage and water quality. The Confederation is also planning to provide emergency training for those who fail to meet international standards.

An initial survey found some places had overflowing garbage bins with poor personal hygiene of food handlers and waiters. It was also found that the raw material was stacked in an unorganized way. All these are area of improvements for food industry, specifically as Delhi is known for its vast array of appealing food which attracts many tourists each year.

CWG impact: Delhi to rate restaurants

In a first of its kind move, the government will soon start rating all food establishments, including small and medium eateries, restaurants, dhabas, takeaway joints and fruit dispensing outlets on parameters of safe and hygienic food.

The project `Safe food, tasty food' to be implemented in time for 2010 Commonwealth Games, will grade restaurants and food establishments (gold, silver or bronze) in the capital to start with, so that consumers can make informed eating choices.

The proposed grade or logo will be displayed by the establishment which decides to be part of the project conceptualized by the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India.

Broad structure, parameters and auditing mechanism for holding food establishments accountable for acceptable levels of safety and quality are put in place. This will also result in improved quality as establishments will have to meet parameters to be rated higher.

Through this project, the government hopes to cover even outlets and shops serving unlabelled pre-packaged sweets, baked and confectionery products.

The project, which is a voluntary exercise will be implemented with the help of local bodies (like Municipal Corporation of Delhi), NGOs, food establishment owners and food and health regulatory authorities. A directory of the restaurants and eateries that have been rated will also be published. Restaurants and establishments including caterers will be rated on parameters including raw material, water, preparing and processing food, personal hygiene, handling and storage, vending/selling, environment, cleaning, waste disposal and pest control.

Food business operators will have to ensure that they produce, sell and distribute safe and hygienic food and their premises are also clean and comply with norms. In case their food, services or premises fail in any of the criteria, the operator would need to take action unlike earlier when the inspector had a major role in ensuring food safety.

Laying out table for the event

Food is one of the major preparation items for any big sporting event. As the 2010 Commonwealth Games drawing near, many companies are joining the race along with Indian firms to get Rs 100-crore catering contract of the mega sporting event in the country.

We learn that 27 companies have bid for the Commonwealth Games contract. Out of all the bidders, 4 caterers - Delaware (UK), Global Infusion (UK), Sodexho (France) and ITDC (India) have been shortlisted by the Organizing Committee of the Games.

They will be asked to submit 'request for proposal' (RFP) shortly," said a senior official involved with the catering responsibility.

The selected caterer is expected to provide anywhere between 35,000 to 44,000 meals per day including breakfast, lunch, evening tea and dinner a day, at the Games Village, during the 10-day sporting extravaganza.