65,000 U’khand food businesses have one sample test lab

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand has a thriving hotel industry, but there is only one food sample testing laboratory in all of the 13 districts of the state. The Food and Drug Testing Laboratory at Rudrapur caters to nearly 65,000 food business operators (FBO) in the state. 

As Union health minister Harsh Vardhan recently visited the state, the Uttarakhand government sought that another food testing laboratory be set up, to offer better facilities to those operating in the food business. The union minister approved the proposal, and gave a go-ahead for the setting up of a new laboratory in Garhwal region. 

With Raksha Bandhan on August 10, the state food safety department is flooded with complaints of adulteration of milk and other food products. 

"The number of samples for testing increases at the time of festivals as the department tries to control adulteration," said Rajendra Singh Rawat, food security officer of Dehradun. 

On an average, over 150 food product samples land at the laboratory each day. During festive seasons, that number goes up to 200. At present, barring random inspections of shops and hotels by food security officers, the state does not have a proper system to monitor quality of food served at hotels and cooked by those in the business. 

"In case of any complaint, food samples are picked up. We have to wait for a long time for getting the report. If a new facility is set up in Garhwal, it would help better monitor hotels and other food business operators," a state government official said. 

In order to rein in food stall owners and hotels, the state food safety department has recently launched an online registration, the first such effort. Nearly 40,000 businesses have registered already. After registration, these business units can get their food samples tested and verified under established rules. This process will be expedited, once the second laboratory is functional. 

At the district level, the food security officer (FSO) conducts inspections in the market and food samples are collected from doubtful FBOs. "To streamline the system we have launched an online mandatory registration for all the FBOs. This will help keep tabs on the numbers, location and scale of business units," the official said.