Fruit samples of litchi, Mango, and apple collected from Bistupur market
Jamshedpur : A mobile van called ‘Food Safety of Wheels’ arrived in the city on Monday to examine food quality and prevent adulteration. In view of rising number of street food and vendors offering delicious fast food as well as to check food adulteration in the city, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has provided one mobile van to the state to test the food standard.
The mobile food testing lab arrived in the city for the first time and tested fruits samples and edible items at Bistupur. The vehicle is equipped to conduct on-the-spot tests to check food quality in 15 minutes. The vehicle is equipped with milk analyser, hot air oven, hot plate, mixer grinder, digital weighing scale, digital multi parameter hand-held meter.
Following request from the East Singhbhum health department the lone mobile lab, allocated to the state health department food safety division was sent to Jamshedpur to check fruit samples mainly mango, litchi etc of adulteration.
East Singhbhum civil surgeon, Dr Maheshwar Prasad said that it is a very good initiative. The Food Safety of Wheels van will not only examine the food samples, but also create awareness among people about food adulteration. The Food Safety on Wheels will examine the food qualities available in crowd area, small hotels and markets.
According to information the mobile lab in a van is equipped with laboratory apparatuses along with two lab technicians and accompanied by district food safety officer Dr Gulab Lakra. As per the plans it will be visiting market areas in the city for the next three days (from Monday).
“Anyone can test the food items at the lab on the spot by paying a meager amount of Rs 20 and know if it is adulterated or not. Our team members will also be collecting samples from fruit sellers and snacks vendors and get it tasted. The sellers and vendors will have to pay the amount,” said Prasad.
Prior to this, the health department in the district has been only collecting samples of sweets and other edible items and so far refrained from collecting fruit samples.
“We want to maintain vigil fruit sellers, as such an on the spot test is being conducted for the first time. The sellers purchase fruits from wholesalers who use chemicals for artificial ripening of fruits and also use colours on litchi which have health hazards. During testing if the samples report is positive we will conduct raids at wholesale dealers,” said Dr Prasad.
On first day, fruit samples like litchi, Mango, and apple were collected from vendors at Bistupur Market. This apart, oils, paneer and other edible items used by vendors dealing in snacks were also collected from different parts of the Bistupur Market.
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