As much as we love to get delicious, cheap eats from the city’s kaki limas, even we must admit that eating street food in Jakarta can be quite the gamble. Beyond basic concerns about hygiene, there are also all of the reports about street food vendors (even on well regarded eat-streets like Jl. Sabang) using dangerous chemicals such as borax as preservatives in their ingredients.
In order to improve food safety in the capital, the government has been attempting to get all of the city’s street vendors health certified by the Institute for Drug and Food Control (BPOM). But, given the vast number of kaki limas in Jakarta, the enormous task has been slow-going.
But recently the government has adopted a new tactic to get street vendors on the food safety bandwagon – by teaming up with online ordering applications like Go-Jek and Zomato so that kaki limas that have been safety certified can have their food delivered to customers, opening up a whole new market to them.
On Thursday, at the kickoff to what they’re calling the #KAKI5JKT initiative, the government announced that about 400 vendors had recently been certified by the Jakarta Department of Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade to take online orders after getting their health certificate from BPOM.
“We want to continue adding to that number, because obviously the number of street vendors is much higher than 400,” said Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama at the event, as quoted by Suara.
Ahok said he hopes he # KAKI5JKT initiative will help people choose healthy, safety-certified street food and also convince vendors who use dangerous ingredients that they can get a lot more business if they get safety certified so that people can order their food online.
He also said that the government had a budget Rp 1 trillion to help kaki limas throughout the city, but that the loans would only be given to vendors who followed safety standards and joined the government’s program.
Go-Jek CEO Nadiem Makarim pledged his company’s support for the initiative, saying that online ordering could greatly improve the business of many street food vendors.
“As an illustration, the total sales of meatballs by Pak Kumis Blok S have doubled (since taking online orders), from previously serving 100 portions per day to now selling 200 portions per day,” he said.
