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Blissful Hygienic Offering To God (BHOG)

Introduction:

Blissful Hygienic Offering To God (BHOG) is an initiative of FSSAI to encourage Places of Worship (PoW) to adopt and maintain food safety and hygiene as well as convey food safety message through such places to the people to follow as responsible citizens. It aims at creation of awareness amongst the places of worship to prevent malpractice and irregularities related to food served as Prasad/Langar, etc. and ensuring proper regulatory compliance of the food safety and standards act, 2006 and rules and regulations made thereunder. It provides useful tips, dos & don’ts, methods and practices that should be followed in Places of Worships.

Project BHOG (Blissful Hygienic Offering to God) is an initiative by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) designed to ensure that the food and “Prasad” served in Places of Worship (PoW) is prepared with the highest standards of hygiene and safety.

A Guidance document has been complied to guide PoW to implement food safety and hygiene practices and its contents have been thoroughly examined by a team of experts on food safety and hygiene.

FSSAI has come out with this document to ensure transparency, objectivity and consistency in implementation and application of food law in PoW throughout the country. The BHOG document would be handy and useful to the authorities in Places of Worship and all concerned to bring about transparency, efficiency and uniformity in regulatory compliance across the country.

Below are the key points of the project detailed by category:

Core Objectives and Rationale:

Ensuring Food Safety: The primary goal is to create awareness about safe food handling practices during the preparation of Prasad to ensure devotees receive wholesome food along with spiritual blessings.
Hygienic Standards: The project aims to ensure the hygienic preparation, packaging, and serving of food in PoWs.
Capacity Building: A major focus is on the training and capacity building of food supervisors and handlers involved in these processes.
Cultural Significance: Recognizing that food in PoWs is regarded as pure and sacred, the initiative emphasizes the mantra that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”.

5-Step Certification Process:

To become a certified “Eat Right Place of Worship,” a location must follow a structured five-step path:

Register: The identification or nomination of the specific Place of Worship.
Pre-Audit: An initial assessment based on a provided checklist.
FoSTaC Training: Training conducted through FSSAI-empanelled Training Partners.
Final Audit: A concluding check performed by third-party auditing agencies or Hygiene Rating Auditors.
Certification: Upon successful completion, a certificate valid for two years is awarded.

Implementation Strategy and Stakeholders:

Key Stakeholders: Implementation involves collaboration between PoW authorities, state Food Safety Officials, training partners like the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists India, and food science students.
Action Plan: The plan includes identifying major PoWs, designating nodal officers for support, conducting workshops for kitchen staff and vendors, and engaging college students as volunteers.
Monitoring: Continuous monitoring and review are conducted by Food Safety Officers (FSOs) to maintain standards.

Current Impact and Community Engagement:

Broad Reach: As of the latest update, there are 1179 Certified Places of Worship participating in the initiative.
Educational Outreach: The project extends to schools, which are encouraged to conduct Eat Right activities and upload evidence to the BHOG website to raise awareness among children.
Devotee Awareness: An essential part of the plan is the dissemination of food safety and hygiene messages directly to the devotees.

FAQs on BHOG:

BHOG initiative of FSSAI based on individual or Cluster approach?
- BHOG initiative is an individual approach under which a particular place of worship is identified for certification. It also covers integrated vendor selling prasad and other food items.
What all are the target group under BHOG initiative?
- Places of Worship handling food either in packed form, loose, meals etc.
What are the steps under BHOG certification process?
- License/Registration under FSSA-2006, audit followed by training. Post audit will be done if scores are not satisfactory at first audit.
Which FoSTaC training is given to food handlers engaged in prasad preparation under BHOG?
- Training will be given on Basic catering course under FoSTaC (Food Safety Training and Certification) programme of FSSAI.
What is the validity of BHOG certificate?
- 2 years from date of issue.
How long does implementation of BHOG takes?
- BHOG is not a mandatory scheme, this initiative aims to build self-compliance at Places of Worship. Implementation time varies from state to state depending on manpower and location of “Place of Worship”. In addition in some state there is a dedicated Government Department/Temple Authority who takes care of Places of Worship falling under their jurisdiction which makes implementation and communication easy.
Who will give funding support for implementation?
- Funding support shall be taken from Temple Authority, concerned state department, corporates through CSR etc. Some of the training partner and auditing partner of FSSI has also supported.
What action will be taken in case of major non-compliance reported after certification or during a valid period of BHOG certificate?
- State department shall immediately take action to rectify the gap found. Still if gaps are not rectified by certificate holder, a letter shall be issued suspending the certificate till the they submit compliance report.
Who will identify “Places of Worship” for certification under BHOG?
- State/UT’s have to identify potential locations in their state by nominating nodal officer and engaging Designated Officer and Food Safety Officer. In addition, empanelled training partner under FoSTaC, Third Party Audit agencies, Hygiene rating audit agency, Food safety Mitra can help States for identification of potential “Places of Worship”.
Who will send the final communication to FSSAI, HQ recommending Hub for certification under BHOG?
- State Food Safety Department on being satisfied with all steps implemented will write to FSSAI HQ addressing CEO and to the nodal officer of CSFH initiative for issuance of BHOG certificate.