Modern lab to test meat, marine products to open tomorrow

Kochi, Sep 6 (UNI) A renovated and modernised laboratory for testing the quality of meat and marine products for export will be opened here tomorrow.

The lab, establised in 1982, was upgraded at a cost of Rs three crore with mainly two divisions -- bio-chemistry and microbiology, Livestock Products Inspecting Officer Dr T K Kaladharan said.

He said the lab would have the facility to test chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, minerals, mycotoxins and level of antibiotics in meat and marine products.

Rs three crore was sanctioned by the Centre for modernisation and procurement of modern equipment for the lab. The lab had state-of-the-art equipment like Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction machine and Thermal Cycler to detect bacteria and virus in the products, he said.

Dr Kaladharan said the precarious situation of the US and European countries rejecting Indian meat and marine products due to lack of quality could be systematically addressed with this facility.

In the immediate future, the public could also use the facility to test all food items.

The lab was spruced up with the assistance of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology here, Kerala Agricultural University.

UNI