THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hamstrung by inadequate facilities for analysing food samples, the Commissionerate of Food Safety is looking to equip two of its laboratories with advanced equipment.
Tenders have been floated for procuring the equipment for performing GC-MS/MS analysis at the labs in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, Food Safety Commissioner T V Anupama said.
‘’We are procuring the equipment through the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL). The equipment will cost around Rs 1 crore,’’ Anupama said.
‘’Now we don’t have such facilities in our labs, but the equipment that we are procuring will serve our purposes in detecting major health hazard-causing residues in fruits and vegetables and other food items,’’ she said.
Recently, the State Government had decided to form an authority by the Food Safety Commissioner to ensure that pesticide-ridden fruits and vegetables do not get imported into the state. In the light of this decision, the Commissionerate had also decided to step up inspections.
At present, the Commissionerate depends on the lab of the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) in Vellayani here for testing food samples.
However, the cost is prohibitive - Rs 8000 per sample.
The Commissionerate has requested Kerala Agricultural University to reduce the rate to around Rs 4000, but even that is considered too high for getting a single sample analysed.
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