Licence to be mandatory for vegetable vendors

Efforts to check inflow of vegetables with high level of pesticide residues

The government has decided to crack down on the issue of high levels of pesticide residues in vegetables being brought from neighbouring States by strictly regulating the entry of vegetable consignments from across the border.

As a first step, the government has decided to ensure that all vegetable traders in the State and vehicles in which vegetables are transported into the State have the mandatory licence or registration for food business operators (FBOs), as specified in the Food Safety and Standards Act of India. The licence/registration would be cancelled if the vehicles are found to be carrying vegetables with high pesticide content during any of the random sampling process.

Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar, who convened a meeting of wholesale vegetable traders here on Tuesday, along with Food Safety Commissioner T.V. Anupama, appealed to the traders to cooperate with the regulatory measures being adopted by the government so that pesticide-free vegetables can be supplied in the State.

The traders expressed their helplessness about the pesticide content in vegetables and that they could not be held liable for selling vegetables as per the market requirement. They also pointed out that they were not directly sourcing vegetables from farmers in neighbouring States but that it was the middlemen or agents who sourced the produce for them as per requirement.

“But we think it is important that the traders become aware of the seriousness of the issue and that when they procure vegetables, they should convey it clearly to the other side that pesticide-ridden vegetables will not be accepted any more. This is just a first step and we believe that if this message goes across clearly to the farmers that there will be no more demand for pesticide-ridden vegetables, the use of these chemicals by farmers will eventually come down,” Mr. Sivakumar said.

The process of issuing licence/registration for vegetable traders and the vehicles is expected to be completed by July 15. Mr. Sivakumar said that vegetables samples collected from many shops with the ‘organic vegetables’ tag were also found to be pesticide-ridden. Food safety officials will be doing intensive checking and sampling in these shops on a regular basis to check pesticide levels in the vegetables. Meanwhile, the government will soon appoint 80 more food safety officers. As part of strengthening the drive against pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits, testing facilities are being augmented. Pesticide testing facilities will be added on at the government labs in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam and the machines have already been installed, Mr. Sivakumar said.

The Chief Minister will be holding a high-level meeting on Wednesday, with other Ministers and Food Safety officials to discuss the issue of ensuring safe-to-consume vegetables in the State through regulatory measures.