Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) mobile food testing laboratories will now ply in all districts of the State.
Functioning with the support of the State government, the mobile testing laboratories named ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ are currently operational in eight districts.
Minister for Health Veena George will flag off the mobile laboratories for the remaining six districts at Bhakshya Suraksha Bhavan, the Food Safety Department’s headquarters located at Thycaud here, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Minister for Transport Antony Raju will preside over the function.
The districts that will get the new mobile food testing laboratories are Kasaragod, Wayanad, Idukki, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Kottayam.
The ‘Food Safety on Wheels’ vehicles are envisaged as multipurpose vehicles that help in dissemination of information and act as a platform for getting food safety training and food testing.
They train food businesses, especially those in villages and towns and street food vendors, on processes and best practices to be followed to ensure food safety and hygiene,. The vehicles are are equipped with basic infrastructure for quick testing to detect adulteration in food commodities.
They also help in consumer education and bringing about behavioural change through displays and classes by food safety inspectors. The mobile food testing laboratories were first launched in the State in 2016.
Commissioner of Food Safety V.R. Vinod said Kerala would become the first State in the country to be equipped with mobile labs in all its districts. The Food Safety on Wheels would operate from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and visit places that are frequented by the public such as markets. They would ply 22 days a month in locations that are communicated in advance to the various food safety circles.
