Analysis of adulterated food will be expedited; Report will be available within 14 days

If the report of adulterated food is received within 14 days after taking action by the food inspectors of the Food and Drug Administration of the state, action can be taken against the concerned businessperson. However, keeping in mind the difficulties in getting reports in time due to the traditional laboratories of the Food and Drug Administration, the administration has set up an updated microbiology laboratory in Mumbai. This is likely to speed up the action of the Food and Drug Administration.

To ensure that the citizens of the state get healthy, pure and excellent food, the Food and Drug Administration frequently inspects food vendors and restaurants. In this inspection, suspicious establishment wise action is taken. Samples seized from this facility are sent to the laboratory for testing. But many times the report is not received within 14 days. Due to this, the administration faces difficulties in taking action. A plan to strengthen the Food Safety and Standards Authority's food testing system has been undertaken. In this background, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Food Safety and Standards Authority and the Food and Drug Administration, out of which an up-to-date microbiology laboratory has been set up in Mumbai.

In this laboratory, experts will be appointed on the basis of public-private partnership to analyse the samples in a rational manner. Also, staff and other facilities will be provided in this laboratory. The new laboratory has been approved by NABL for food testing along with chemical analysis. So now it will be possible for the Food and Drug Administration to micro analyze any food. The updated laboratory will help speed up the analysis and it will be possible to get their report within 14 days. Abhimanyu Kale, Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration informed that it will be easier to take punitive action against the concerned establishments if the report is received within 14 days.

Laboratories will be set up at five places in the state

There are three Food and Drug Administration laboratories in the state. This includes Mumbai and Pune. However, the state government is trying to set up up-to-date laboratories at five more places in the state so that the samples seized under the operation can be analyzed quickly.