Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh flagged off a Mobile Food Testing laboratory to check adulterated food and beverage samples in the state.

Facts :

• The lab, funded by the central government, is aligned to the guidelines set by the ‘Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’ (FSSAI) and will be used to conduct tests of milk, water, edible oils and other items of food for daily consumption.
• The ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ van is also equipped to detect fats, solids not fat, adulterants such as starch, sucrose, urea, maltodextrin, in milk, pH, total dissolved solids, conductivity etc in water, besides detection of synthetic colours such as metanil yellow in turmeric powder, along with many other spot tests to check adulteration in other food items.
• The van also had the facility to draw on-the-spot samples and generate instant reports. As many as 40 different types of tests on the food can be conducted in the van.
• The van, was fully equipped with analytical instruments, such as milk analyser, hot air oven, hot plate, mixer-grinder, digital weighing scale, digital multi parameter hand-held meter and digital refractometer.
• The van is funded by the Central government and follows the guidelines of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The van has already visited Amritsar, Bathinda and Jalandhar. If the idea clicks, then the Health Department might consider making it a permanent feature in the city.
• As food tests laboratories were not available everywhere, FDA had decided to set up mobile food tests labs to encourage healthy and safe food practices.
• Reports of samples will be taken into consideration while taking action against shopkeepers selling sub-standard food. The consumer himself, whose sample has failed the test, can lodge a complaint with the Health Department.
• The Chief Minister also launched an Android Mobile app — Food Safety Punjab, which is free of cost and downloadable from Google Play Store — to provide guidelines to citizens for detection of adulteration with rapid test of various consumable items and also provides information about safe and nutritious food.
• With this initiative, the beneficiary can online apply for registration/licensing.

Analysis :

• Testing of food to instil confidence amongst consumers that food is safe to eat is important part of the food safety ecosystem. However, number and spread of food testing labs in the country is grossly inadequate.
• While, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working towards having more food testing labs both in the public as well as private sector, it has also initiated a scheme to provide mobile units for food testing to reach out to consumers through as many touch points as possible.
• The Chief Minister appreciated the initiative of the Food and Drug Administration and expressed the hope that this van would also create further awareness among the people regarding food safety.
• The van would help the state FDA to enhance its outreach programmes and conduct surveillance activities even in remote areas.More such vans would be launched in the near future.
• It is hoped that with passage of time, services provided through these mobile units, ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ would become popular amongst all stakeholders, namely, the citizens, the consumers, the food businesses and the field functionaries of the Food Safety Departments in the States. This would help to bring about a paradigm shift in food safety ecosystem in the country.

Food adulteration :

• Misbranded food items are those which do not have proper labeling and mislead customers.
• Substandard products are those which do not have contents according to the standard level.
• Unsafe products are not fit for human consumption.

Penalties under Food Safety Act :

• Penalty is imposed according to the report given by the lab.
• Expiry of product: Upto Rs 2 lakh.
• Misbranded product: Upto Rs 3 lakh.
• Sub-standard product: Upto Rs 5 lakh.
• Misleading packaging: Upto Rs 10 lakh.
• Unsafe products: Impris-onment from one year to six months and fine according to the gravity of offence.