IRCTC partners with QCI for digital food safety audits across trains, stations

New Delhi: Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on Thursday said that it has partnered with the Quality Council of India (QCI) to introduce independent, technology-driven audits of food safety and hygiene across its catering operations on trains and at railway stations.

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Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), QCI will deploy certified professionals to conduct unannounced quarterly and half-yearly inspections of mobile catering units on trains and static catering units at railway stations. The audits will assess compliance with statutory Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulations and prescribed food safety and hygiene standards.

The inspection framework will cover food preparation, storage, staff medical fitness, use of protective equipment, personal hygiene and hospitality practices. It will also examine the segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian raw food items, temperature-controlled storage of meals, sanitation and pest-control measures.

A key feature of the initiative is the use of QCI's digital infrastructure to improve transparency and accountability. Inspectors will document findings through a dedicated mobile application equipped with geo-tagging, time-stamping and photographic evidence to minimise the risk of data tampering.

Audit reports will be submitted within 24 hours, enabling IRCTC to identify deficiencies and initiate corrective and preventive action (CAPA) tracking against vendors found violating prescribed standards.

The digital monitoring mechanism is expected to strengthen vendor accountability and facilitate faster corrective action, with the broader objective of improving food quality and hygiene across railway catering services.

The collaboration also provides a framework for future initiatives, including passenger satisfaction surveys, infrastructure audits and specialised training programmes for catering staff.

The MoU has been signed by Sudhir Warrier, General Manager, Quality & Projects, IRCTC, and Subroto Ghosh, Principal Advisor and Head of PPID, QCI.

Ramanand Nagender Shukla, CEO of the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), and Mohit Padhi, Assistant Secretary General of QCI, attended the signing ceremony. Rahul Himalian, Chairman and Managing Director of IRCTC, and Manoj Kumar Sharma, Director, Catering Services, IRCTC, were also present.

QCI's experience in large-scale public monitoring programmes, including Swachh Survekshan and nationwide milk and food surveillance for FSSAI, was cited as a key consideration in the partnership.

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IRCTC is a Navratna public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways and serves as the catering and tourism arm of Indian Railways. QCI, established in 1996, is an autonomous national quality body operating under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with a mandate covering quality benchmarking, third-party assessments and governance audits.

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