KOLKATA: The state government is further augmenting its infrastructure for ensuring food safety to prevent adulteration in food.
The state is coming up with 16 mobile food testing laboratory vans for further boosting its food testing mechanism and several other measures in the same direction.
Presently, the state government has 14 such mobile testing food facilities in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Malda, Darjeeling and some other districts.
According to sources in the Health department, there will be 30 such mobile food testing vans which will be moving in and around the market areas of the districts and health districts and condut awareness about food safety.
It will conduct random testing of samples from markets to check and to ensure that the quality of food is not compromised by any means. Tests of some specimens can be conducted right at the spot while some will be tested in the laboratories after sample collection.
Spot fine will also be imposed if a shopkeeper is found dealing with inferior quality of food. From April 2022, till January this year, the food safety wing of the Health department has collected over 7500 food samples from different parts of the state.
The health department is hopeful of making 16 such vehicles operational within six months.
Bengal is presently ranked 5th among in India in the area of food safety. The Health department wants to further push the ranking up by initiating strong measures.