The Food Safety Standards Authority of India introduced 9 mobile food testing laboratories on Tuesday named “Food Safety on Wheels”. These laboratories were flagged off on Tuesday by FSSAI Chairperson Ashish Bahuguna, these laboratories will be offered to 8 States. These laboratories can conduct 24 tests on milk, 9 tests on edible oil, 17 tests on spice and 11 tests on other foods, in order to check adulterants. “We have provided manuals to the states on how to run these units” said FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal. 53 more such laboratories will be made available for the other States at the cost of Rs.19 crore. “The process for tendering of equipment has started” Mr. Pawan Agarwal said. FSSAI is focusing on the strengthening of the existing laboratories, and will be modernising 45 laboratories across the country at a cost of Rs.12 crore each. “The laboratories will soon be connected by way of a centralised management system” Mr. Agarwal said. “The samples collected by field units will be coded and tested in the notified laboratories of FSSAI and the results will be available at a central database. This data will be available for enforcement and food import controls” Mr. Agarwal said. The authority will also launch a food safety index to judge all States and Union Territories on parameters like testing infrastructure, enforcement, surveillance and consumer grievance cell, among others.
