Once again it has been proved that vegetables can be grown in Kerala even without spraying chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Kochi: Once again it has been proved that vegetables can be grown in Kerala without spraying chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Researchers from the Agriculture university took 165 samples of vegetables from the farms across Kerala and found that 163 (98.7%) of them met the 'safe to eat ' criteria.
The latest report containing details of the 165 vegetable samples taken between January 1, 2015 and March 31 were released. The reports of each district are given separately.
Though traces of toxic chemicals were found in one of the sample collected from farmers of Kasargod, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has not fixed the pesticide limit.
However, no trace of toxic chemicals were found in the samples collected from farmers of Idukki and Kottayam districts. In the 73 samples collected from Thiruvananthapuram district, pesticide residue toxins were found only in 10 of them. Among them, only two samples violated the 'safe to eat' standards. Pesticide residue was found in ladiesfinger, beans, cucumber, red spinach and bitter gourd. The samples contained pesticides Chlorpyrifos, Fenvalerate, Lambda-cyhalothrin and Quinalphos.The university will advice the farmers regarding changes to be made in the use of pesticides.
Testing of vegetable samples for farmers is free and giving certification, as part of this scheme, is going on. If the farmers take one kilo sample each of the vegetables to be examined in a bag (other than plastic) and take it to the pesticide residue examination laboratory at the agricultural college at Vellayani, it will be examined free of cost and report given, Principal investigator Dr Thomas Biju George informed.
Vegetable testing: 15 new posts to be created at food safety labs
Thiruvananthapuram: As part of controlling the flow of toxic vegetables and fruits to the state, 15 new posts for technical experts will be created in the analytical labs functioning under food and safety commissionerate . It has also been decided to make the appointments to the posts soon. Health minister VS Sivakumar informed that the posts of research officer, Junior research officer, technical assistant grade 1 and grade 2 have been created to improve the technical standards at the labs in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Pathanamthita and Kozhikode.
GCMSMS, the latest method to analyse the presence of pesticides in food items , will soon start functioning in the labs. It has also been decided to establish ISPMS facility to detect the presence of heavy metals at the labs in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
Facilites to test fish, meat, oil, curry powders in a time-bound manner are being enabled in the labs. Facilites to analyse the presense of micro organisms which cause food poisoning will also be made available in the food safety labs in Kerala. An understanding has been reached between the food safety commissionerate and central food technological research institute at Mysore for strenghthening the food safety analytical labs in the state with the help of latest technology.
Along witht the transfer of technology, scientists of the institute will give expert training to food analysts at the laboratories in the state. The minister informed that the analytical labs in kerala are in the final stage of preparations for getting NABL accreditation .
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