Govt to open 100 new food testing labs in India

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) Expecting an exponential growth in the Food Technology business that is toutedto overtake even the IT and Biotechnology sectors, the Central Government will set up 100 new food testing labs in the country, Minister of State for Food processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said today.

At present, India has 31 such labs.

The minister was addressing mediapersons after the launch of FICCI-FRAC (Food Research and Analysis Centre) at Dwarka here.

After inaugurating the facility, Minister for Science, Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal urged food technologists and analysts to take up the challenge of integrating ISO 17025 in the international food chain regime and get global recognition for the Indian food standard.

''The challenge in the future would be to meet the exacting standards that Europe and other developed countries will impose on import food items from the developing world, and we have to gear ourselves up to meeting those standard,'' he said.

He also called for setting up district-level-training and research institutes to market agri-production to a huge market both in India and abroad.

Mr Sibal also pointed out that with 50 per cent of Indian household incomes spent on food, including processed (80 per cent), unpackaged form (95 per cent), the food processing industry has tremendous potential for growth.

The FICCI-FRAC laboratory, accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories and recognised by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), is equiped for commercial testing of all food products, shelf-life studies, nutritional analysis, sampling and inspection during manufacture, certifying export consignments, hygiene studies at manufacturing sites and sponsored research projects.

The facility contains independent chemical, biological and instruments labs, expanded floor area, temperature, humidity controlled labs, clean air room for microbiology, computerised documentation, library of standards and methods and R&D and training facilities.

''Testing for biological hazards in foods has gained importance over the last one decade as awareness of food-borne diseases from microbial pathogens and their toxins has got more public visibility and a higher regulatory profile. Developing methods and procedures to rapidly detect pathogens in foods is an ongoing challenge which we have tried to meet with our new centre,'' FICCI-FRAC President Vineet Virmani said.

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