India gets its first mobile food testing lab

Manohar Parrikar, Goa Chief Minister, on Sunday launched India’s first mobile food testing laboratory. The Rs. 41 lakh vehicle was launched in the presence of Goa Food and Drugs Administration Minister Vishwajit Rane.

This portable laboratory will travel across the country checking food samples on the spot. Parrikar said that this would be the country’s first ever ‘Food Safety on wheels’, stressing on how the awareness of food items is crucial as “most of the time we don’t know what is mixed in the food that we eat”.

The vehicle is equipped with milk analyser, hot plate, hot air oven, mixer grinder, digital weighing scale, digital multi-parameter, hand-held meter, power generator, air conditioner and refrigerator. FDA Director Jyoti Sardessai said that in the last six months they had received around 300 complaints related to adulteration.

“This facility will be used to conduct tests for common adulterants in milk, water, edible oils and other items of food of daily consumption. It will be possible to draw on-the-spot samples and generate instant reports of the analysis,” Sardessai said.

Chief Minister Parrikar added, “It is entirely funded by the Centre, which will also bear the maintenance cost for five years. The laboratory will help in on-the-spot testing of food items and curb adulteration. Besides this, it will also educate people about nutrition and importance of safe food,”