FSSAI intends to give a big push to the country’s food testing services and to this end they have launched ‘Food Safety on Wheels.’ Food testing is an important part of the food safety ecosystem which helps to build confidence in consumers that food is safe to consume. Since the strength of testing labs in the country is inadequate to meet all testing requirements, Food Safety on Wheels will supplement and add to food testing infrastructure in the country. The efforts of the FSSAI have support from the Central government and FSSAI will, therefore; work to strengthen State food labs, provision for mobile food labs and other initiatives.
The Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, is on the verge of completing 11 years. To mark this milestone, the FSSAI has launched five key initiatives which would lend to strengthening the food testing system in the country. The five FSSAI initiatives are as follows
- Indian Food Laboratory Network (InFoLNet) is a digital solution that will connect all the food labs in the country to a centralized Lab Management System (LMS). This system will be able to provide end to end solutions as samples collected by the field units would be coded and tested in FSSAI notified labs and the results made available in the central database. This collected data would be seamlessly made available for enforcement and for establishing food import controls. InFoLNet should in time become a focal point for risk analysis, standards improvement, training and capacity building and better food surveillance.
- Food Safety on Wheels: These vehicular units will serve as mobile food testing units and will be used to for public education and for conducting awareness programs. The mobile labs will have fully functional testing facilities that could be used for
- quick qualitative testing and for detection of common adulterants in foods
- spreading awareness of food safety and hygiene
- conducting training and certification programs for food businesses
With the help of these mobile units, the State functionaries would also enhance their outreach and conduct surveillance activities in far-flung areas. FSSAI will provide at least one such mobile unit to each State/UT and bigger States could get more than one mobile unit. Nine mobile units have already been made available in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
- State Food Testing Labs to be strengthened as the 45 State food labs would be provided with state-of-art, high-end food testing equipment including microbiology labs.
- DART (Detecting Adulterants with Rapid Testing) would be used as a handy tool-kit for rapid testing of common adulterants. This is a compilation of simple test methods for detecting common adulterants such as extraneous matters deliberately added to food. It can be used as a self-enforcement tool by FBOs and a ready home-guide for consumers which will help to combat adulteration.
- In order to address the issue of acute shortage of food analysts in the country, FSSAI will hold Junior Analyst Examination along with Food Analyst Examination in late September/early October 2017. Over the years this would help to build a pool of trained food analysts who would be able to provide good services to the food industry and the regulatory system.
These initiatives by FSSAI will definitely help to develop a more robust food safety ecosystem in the country, provide capabilities that would enhance food testing infrastructure and create trained specialists.
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