Considerations to be Made in Order to Protect the Quality of the Food We Eat
In this case, on Tuesday this week, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman disclosed that the government will develop 100 accredited food testing laboratories and 100 additional street food hubs across the country. This initiative should give a proactive approach in the desire to guarantee the standard and safety of foods in the country. The scheme will provide a mechanism for establishing one hundred quality and safety food testing laboratories that have to be NABL accredited and also create one hundred weekly haats or street food centers in certain cities.
Strengthening Food Safety Standards
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, also known as FASSAI, overlooks the quality safety, and standardization of foods in India. These are strengthening analysis laboratories, guaranteeing food testing, personnel development, monitoring activities, and consumer training. The recent examples could be the Indian spices in Singapore and Hong Kong removed over concerns regarding ethylene oxide levels or Nestle’s Cerelac allegedly containing extra sugar in India as a testament to their volume.
Expanding Testing Capabilities
According to FSSAI out of all the laboratories which are authorized and approved for analyzing the Food samples under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 there were 206 NABL accredited primary food testing laboratories as of 05/05/2015. The name NABL is an acronym that expands to the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories. Increasing the number of NABL-accredited food testing laboratories to 100 more will improve the state’s testing capacity of food products, thus making the consumer confident of what they consume. The chief executive of Food Future Foundation and former CEO of FSSAI Pawan Agarwal opined that the allowance of both private and government NABL labs is favorable.
Backing for Food Irradiation Units
Sitharaman also suggested funding to establish fifty multi-product food irradiation facilities in the MSME segment apart from the food testing laboratories. This measure seeks to build further on the preparedness of food safety and quality assurance in the country.
