The government has taken steps to make available services of 12 accredited laboratories under various departments and universities for the Food Safety Department, considering the difficulties in conducting food safety and quality standard tests in a timely manner.
The services of 12 identified laboratories will be available for the department apart from its own labs in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, and Kozhikode.
NABL accreditation
As per the Food Safety and Standards Act, NABL-accredited labs or labs notified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) should be used for analysing food samples.
The labs thus identified are the ones under the Animal Husbandry Department at Maradu, the labs under the Kerala Veterinary University at Pookkode and Mannuthy, the lab under the Fisheries University and Panangad, the milk testing labs of the Dairy Development Department at Pattom and Alathur, the Council for Food Research and Development (CFRD) lab at Konni, and the Pesticide Residues Testing lab at the Kerala Agricultural University. Statutory analysis of food samples may also be done at any other lab specified by the Food Safety Commissioner as well as the labs notified by the FSSAI from time to time.
The service of the new laboratories would mean that quality testing of cooked or raw food products, edible oils, curry powders, fish, meat, fruits and vegetables as well as microbiological examination of samples of cooked food could be done in a timely manner, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar said.
Operation Ruchi
He was addressing a meeting of food safety officials across the State, as part of strengthening Operation Ruchi, here on Thursday.
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