A day after the government declared its intention to crack down on sale of unsafe vegetables in the State, experts have called for realistic measures such as regular statutory sample collection and testing as well as steps to trace vegetables sold in the State to their origin.
An official familiar with the developments on Tuesday said the test results cannot be obtained quick enough to prevent the sale of a particular consignment of vegetables. Sure-fire tests take four to five days. The best way, therefore, to ensure safe vegetables in the State is to go back to their origins and take preventive action with the cooperation of the farmers concerned. Once samples from a consignment are found to be contaminated, it is possible to take the help of the Sales Taxes Department to trace the wholesalers and subsequently the farmers, the official said.
An official at Kerala Agricultural University said the most serious problems lay with a few items of vegetables such as curry, coriander and mint leaves, carrot, cauliflower, green chillies and capsicum. These vegetables are mostly got from the neighbouring States. Among vegetables produced in the State, red amanranthus and vegetable cow pea pose the most serious problems of pesticide contamination.
It is learnt that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSA) has launched collection of statutory samples of vegetables. As a first measure, coriander leaf samples were collected in Kochi last week, FSSA sources said. They said that samples of more vegetables would be collected in the coming days.
Traders in Tamil Nadu and Kochi are guarded in their reaction to the government decision to take stern action against sale of pesticide-contaminated vegetables in the State.
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