Regular monitoring for heavy metals in soil-food crops soon

Delhi The country’s apex food safety regulator, Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), along with the Ministry of Agriculture, will soon start regular monitoring for presence of heavy metals in soil–food crops. Tests are likely to be conducted for the presence of heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury.

“The presence of heavy metals, especially four big ones such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, in produce is an area of concern that we aim to check through regular monitoring, like in case of pesticides,” FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said.

In a recently released result of the food and beverages samples analysed last year, the FSSAI found that nearly 4% of the 1,00,000 samples analysed by states and union territories were unsafe.

In another survey of raw and processed milk being sold across the country, the food regulator found about 6% of the milk samples to contain Aflatoxin M1, a liver-toxic micro-contaminant, also known as carcinogen.

The food safety regulator has commissioned another pan-India survey to understand the extent of the problem regarding the presence of heavy metals in soil-food crops. The survey was conducted on vegetables to know the contamination pattern across India and its possible sources. The data is still in the process of being collated, and is likely to be released next week.

“The regulator wanted to get a sense of the problem since there have been talks of crops from various riverbeds being mainly contaminated. There are also experts suggesting that air pollution is resulting in our produce getting contaminated with harmful metals such as lead. The matter was taken up with the ministry of agriculture,” said Agarwal.

According to experts, prolonged exposure to these heavy metals could even damage organs.

“A person would usually suffer from chronic condition rather than symptoms related to acute metal toxicity,” said Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. “The focus should be to prevent contamination so that experts can look at how best to minimise the effect. The idea is to create a safe food ecosystem in the long run.”