The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has agreed to give special assistance of Rs 8.50 crore to the Food and Drugs Administration, Maharashtra to its existing laboratories by procuring new equipment to test food samples as per the FSSAI norms.
The above assurance was given by FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr.Pallavi Darade in a recent meeting of high powered committee held in New Delhi. The FDA has sought an assistance of Rs 10 crore, including Rs 8.2 crore to procure new equipments and Rs. 1.8 crore to strengthen infrastructure. Eventually the FISSI agreed to give Rs 8.50 crore and also permitted the FDA to open separate ban account since this is a special central assistance.
The assistance will be used for procuring three ultra equipments to test the food as per the standards. They will be used to check the metal content in food, component of pesticides, organic content in non-vegetarian food etc. The pesticides are widely used in producing food to control pests such as insects, rodents, weeds, bacteria and fungus.
For testing of Drugs & Cosmetics as stated under section 20 and 33 F of Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940 & Rules there under, Maharashtra State has established Drugs Control Laboratory at Bandra(Mumbai) and at Aurangabad, under the Administrative control of the Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maharashtra State. The existing capacity of testing food samples is 1200 at Mumbai and 720 in Aurangabad. Both the Laboratories are well equipped with sophisticated instruments.
In addition to FDA’s laboratories in Mumbai and Aurangabad, The food analytical laboratories are in existence also under department of public health, at different places. They include: 1. State Public Health Laboratory, Pune( this is the apex Laboratory of the state & is also declared as Central Food laboratory for state), 2. Regional Public Health Laboratories are at Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amaravati, 3. District Public Health Laboratories at: New Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Beed, Nanded, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Akola. In addition to the BMC also has laboratory in Mumbai.
Public Analysts have been appointed in above laboratories¸ who analyses the samples and deliver report¸within 40 days from date of receipt. The Public analysts are required to verify sealed portion and analyze the food article, keeping in mind that the analysis has been done as per the methodologies laid down by Director General of Health Services.
FSSAI has been established under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which consolidates various acts & orders that have hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and Departments. FSSAI has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
FSSAI has been mandated by the FSS Act, 2006 to frame regulations to lay down the standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying appropriate system of enforcing various standards thus notified, to lay down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in certification of food safety management system for food businesses, to lay down procedure and guidelines for accreditation of laboratories and notification of the accredited laboratories, to provide scientific advice and technical support to Central Government and State Governments in the matters of framing the policy and rules in areas which have a direct or indirect bearing of food safety and nutrition, to collect and collate data regarding food consumption, incidence and prevalence of biological risk, contaminants in food, residues of various, contaminants in foods products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system and to create an information network across the country so that the public, consumers, Panchayats etc receive reliable and objective information about food safety and food standards.
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