Spices Board sets up quality testing labs

KOCHI, 

Seeking to meet stringent global norms for food safety, the Spices Board has set up a state-of-the-art Quality Evaluation Lab (QEL) at Navi Mumbai for pesticide residue analysis and microbial food safety in spices and spice products.

The laboratory, the eighth such facility established by the Board across India, is equipped with the most modern chromatographic and spectroscopic analytical instrumentations.

A Jayathilak, Chairman of Spices Board, said that the lab would act as a centre of excellence to decontaminate the pesticide residue in spices. It will make a national database on application of pesticide contamination. “This state of the art lab will elevate us to meet the global standards and export quality spices,” he said. The centre is equipped with latest immuno, molecular, biochemical and spectroscopic instrumental techniques for the detection and enumeration of microorganisms in food. The facilities in the laboratory will meet the demand for the next 10 years.