Feb 10, 2020
MPEDA sets up new microbiology lab, giving major push to seafood exports in India
Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has inaugurated its first state-of-the-art microbiology laboratory, thereby giving a major push to seafood exports in India.
Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, at the inauguration stated that the new laboratory at MPEDA headquarters would help the seafood sector overcome the stiff competition in the global export market, particularly on the quality front.
While MPEDA Chairman K.S. Srinivas explained that the laboratory would be used to test all sorts of seafood at various stages, including during production and prior to export, to avoid the presence of any bacteria. It will ensure that exporters are not faced with rejection of their products by any country on the grounds of sub-standard quality.
The laboratory was necessitated by the fact that the US, the European Union and other major seafood importers were tightening their quality norms on a regular basis in the interest of the health of their population. This has prompted India’s seafood exporters to go for enhancement of the quality of their products to survive the competition.
It is very important that all other sectors under the food processing industry, including tea growers in Assam and elsewhere, would go for such a laboratory to promote quality and give a fillip to exports.
The other laboratories are in Kochi (Kerala), Bhimavaram and Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) and Bhubaneswar (Odisha).