Food safety wing's lone lab lying defunct

PATNA: The only lab of state food safety wing of health department in Gulzarbagh area is lying defunct. The wing itself is suffering from acute shortage of manpower.

The lab at Gulzarbagh became non-functional after the food analyst retired two years back. The lab did not have the specialist to check the presence of micro-bacteria, if any, in the samples. The food items seized by food safety officials are now sent to Mines Area Development Authority Lab, Dhanbad which charges Rs 200 per sample. Some four months back, the services of a private lab in Kolkata were pressed into service and the department pays Rs 1000 for each sample. The Kolkata lab is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABL).

According to officials, every food safety inspector has a target of collecting 12 samples per month. The officials, who did not wish to be quoted, admitted that the entire process was cumbersome and, on many an occasion, even the test reports are delayed. Also, spending Rs 1000 per sample is a huge burden.

But the department has lofty plans in the pipeline. It has approved the proposals to set up one lab at every divisional headquarters and a well-equipped super lab in the state capital. The lab at division level is proposed to have 10 staff members including food analysts, technicians and assistants. The super lab will have food analysts who test any adulteration for chemicals, while another specialist will look into bacteria and other harmful microbes. It will be headed by a director. The ball is now in the finance department's court. At present, there are only 14 food safety inspectors against a sanctioned strength of 30. They are expected to look after all the 38 districts of the state. There are nine designated food safety officers who are expected to keep tab on adulteration in all the divisions. "The existing manpower is definitely not enough in implementing the objectives of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. So, we have proposed to create new posts in all the ranks," said Sanjay Kumar, state food safety commissioner. The proposal is to create posts of one food safety officer (FSO) at block level and one FSO per one lakh population at town level. Also, two posts of joint commissioners are proposed to be created at the state headquarters to look into legal and enforcement aspects. The food safety officials claim the new set-up will be in place in about a year's time.