Jan 3, 2020
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is going to invest around ₹20 crore in developing indigenous food testing kits.
The regulatorI has approved 30 rapid food testing kits and devices under the recently finalized regulations, which aim to strengthen the food testing ecosystem in the country.
Steps have been taken so that indigenously developed kits and devices are validated and approved under the FSSAI regulations on a fast-track basis.
But only two out of the 30 kits and devices are indigenously manufactured, though many research and scientific institutions in India are engaged in the development of such kits and devices.
There is a market potential of ₹1,000 crore for such kits and devices in India alone. Once such kits and devices are widely used for regulatory purposes, the food industry will also begin to use them for internal quality assurance and quality control,” he added.
FSSAI is providing these kits to states for use by field officers to get quicker and validated results for tests on different food products such as milk and edible oils. States could also buy such kits and devices from the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal to make them widely available with enforcement officials.
The devices ensuring faster, better, and cheaper real-time testing of food will soon become an integral part of quality assurance and quality control programmes in the food industry, and also for regulatory and surveillance in 2020.