Referral Lab will Soon Open in the State for Testing Food Items | 02 Mar 2023

Why In News?

On March 1, 2023, Rajasthan's Medical and Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena assured in the assembly that a referral lab would be set up in the state soon for testing food items. He informed that a proposal has been sent to the Central Government by the State Government in this regard.

Key points

• Medical and Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said that there are different parameters for testing food samples by the State Food Testing Laboratory and referral lab. The state government has also written a letter to the central government to fix the same parameter across the country.
• Replying to a supplementary question asked by the member in this regard during question hour, Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said that samples that samples that have been unsafe in the testing of food samples in the state laboratory can be tested through referral. At present, referral labs are set up in Mumbai, Pune and Mysore.
• He said that the parameters of safe and unsafe are different in the center and the state. Unsafe 1202 samples were sent for referral to the state laboratory, where only 154 of them were found to be unsafe. The central government has assured the early establishment of referral labs in the state as well.
• Earlier, in a written reply to the original question of MLA Suryakanta Vyas, the Medical and Health Minister said that government laboratories are established in the state to check adulteration of food items. He laid on the table of the House the year-wise and district-wise details of samples taken in government laboratories in the last four years and reports received from them.
• The Medical and Health Minister also placed on the table of the House the decisions, decisions received from the referral received from the said report from the samples declared unsafe by the food laboratories of the state to the referral lab, year-wise and district wise information of the samples considered non-standard and standard.
• Parsadi Lal Meena said that section 46(4) of the Food Safety and Standards Act provides for an appeal against the report of the food analyst to the concerned officer. Under these provisions, on appeal by the designated officer concerned, the samples can be tested by the designated officer from the referral laboratory. The FSSAI has earmarked three referral labs for the state - Mysore, Pune and Navi Mumbai.
• He said that the main reason for the difference in the results of the state laboratory and referral laboratory is to test on different parameters and the interpretation of the results obtained by the investigating officer to give his opinion is also one of the reasons for the investigation results obtained after testing the samples.
• The Medical and Health Minister said that proposals have been sent to FSSAI New Delhi under the MoU in the Work Plan 2023-24 for setting up referral labs in the state.