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Upgradation of food laboratories gathering speed in UP & other states
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Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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Upgradation of food laboratories, which has been a priority for the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in recent times, seems to have picked up speed.
Benefits
Various states are in the process of strengthening their respective lab infrastructure. This includes the establishment of new facilities and ensuring their accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories(NABL).
Many opine that this is vital, particularly in the aftermath of Nestle’s Maggi controversy, wherein labs which initially indicted the noodle brand latergave it a clean chit.
With the upgradation or establishment of accredited labs,surveillance-based risk assessment, which has been envisaged, will also be put in place.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most populous state, has five functional labs. These are situated in Lucknow, Meerut, Agra, Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
Plans are afoot to establish another lab duly accredited byNABL at Jhansi.
State functionaries say that the state government has made food safetya priorityand a budget is allocated as and when required.
FSSAI has initiatedthe procedure for running the Ghaziabad food lab under public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, stated, “We are trying to run the lab at Ghaziabad under PPP mode.”
“We are in the process of identifying the private partners who can run the lab. Based on the experience,we will see if we can do the same withother facilities,” he added.
Gujarat
Of the six labs in Gujarat, three are state labs and three are municipal labs. “Of these, four are NABL-accredited, while the rest are in the process of getting the approval,” said HG Koshia, state food safety commissioner.
He added that a new building was being built in Patan district in northern Gujaratfor FDA lab with a budget of Rs 5 crore.This would cater to five neighbouring districts.
Madhya Pradesh
There is one NABL-accredited labin Bhopal. “Three other labs (situated in Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur) are in the process of getting approval,” said Pramod Shukla, joint controller, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Madhya Pradesh.
He added that the state government had earmarked a sum of Rs 5 crore for the purpose of strengthening lab infrastructure.
The state government willrecruit 145 lab technicians for the purpose of capacity building.
Shukla stated, “We are also ensuring microbiological testing in our state.”
Kerala
TV Anupama, food safety commissioner, Kerala, stated that the state government had made plans to augment the capacityand approved new initiativesfor the purpose.
“Under capacity building initiatives,we recently undertooktraining sessions for officers deployed at the points of entry regarding the amended laws and rules. These sessions had 22 new recruits and others from FDAs and customs,” she said.
Anupama informed that the work of upgrading the four existinglabs in the state and ensuring NABLaccreditation had commenced.
Maharashtra
There is a referral labin Pune and an accredited one in Mumbai. Plans are afoot for a state-owned labin Nagpur, where the samples procured would be tested.
“As Nagpur serves as a junction to its nearby districts, and samples from the nearby areas also are sent for testing, the labs will be upgraded and will be ready by March 2017. We will also apply for NABLaccreditation," saidChandrakant Salunkhe, assistant commissioner(food), FDA Maharashtra.
Himachal Pradesh
However, some states have just one lab, which is not accredited by NABL. One of them is Himachal Pradesh.
There is only one lab in Solan, which is not accredited by NABL. Both food and drugs are tested at this facility.
However, state officials said that the government had plans to develop the food safety lab infrastructure.
Concerns
Upgradation would certainly help address the domestic concerns. But as far as imported food is concerned, such acts would ensure hassle-free trade.
Many traders raised concerns about the delays in getting approvals from authorities in case of imported food items and demandedthat labs be established at ports.
CEO’s responses
Agarwal said, “While we are committed to risk-based surveillance and sampling of imported food products, there is a delay in their establishment. So, instead of 100 per cent risk-based sampling, we are opting for the routine method of sample collection.”
He expected that the situation would improve with a fairly large number of labs being established and more private labs in the process of starting their operations in the time to come.
Ruling out any commitment to establish labs at ports, Agarwal stated, “Although we are not going to establish such labs, a facility at Navi Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is under active consideration.”
“In other places, it would be time-consuming. Significant investment is being made in private labs and to upgrade state labs, so they can take care of the increased workload,” he added.
“Moreover, there is hardly any port which does not have a lab located six to eight hours away.And with risk-based sampling in place, things would besmoother,” Agarwal stated.
Echoing FSSAI, state food safety departments across the country also expressed similar sentiments.
Recently, the apex regulator issueda notification to notify112 NABL-accredited labs accredited for the purpose of food testing.
With a budgetary allocation of nearly Rs 500crore earmarked for the upgradation of the labs and establishing new ones by FSSAI, food testing lab infrastructure in the country has started getting the much-needed attention.
But there are other concerns as well. These pertain to the methodology of testing parameters, equipment, skilled manpower, training and capacity building.
“FSSAI should actually frame simplified laws for the labs.The existing ones are very difficult to understand.To make it easier to understand, the regulator should come up with the minimum to maximum range, which it has started,” said Nilesh Amritkar, managing director, Envirocare Labs Pvt Ltd.
“It should be taken into consideration that the methods which are used by the labs have also to be finalised. Several clients have stated that tests in other laboratories generated different results,” he added.
“This is due to lack of information regarding the methodology to be used for the analysis of the food product. They can simply prescribe the range for the methods used to analyse the food product,” stated Amritkar.
Madhukar Johar, expert, FSSAI, said, “It is imperative that the private laboratory infrastructure builds up well. Most of the private labs go for accreditation as it offers them the much-needed credibility to do business.”
“Such private labs could play a major role in ensuring that all export consignments are safe to export. Several states which have points of exit or export hubs suffer from a lack of available lab infrastructure, which ends up delaying the export consignments,” he added.
“The government plans to come up with a quality control mechanism which will ensure that all the exports adhere to the laws of the importing nation. Here, labs will play a major role with regard to ensuring safety from pesticide residues, other trace contaminants and other necessary norms,” Johar stated.
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