First Ever Mobile Food-Testing Lab Launched in India

Goa chief minister Mr Manohar Parrikar launched the country’s first ever mobile food testing laboratory. The vehicle, worth Rs 41 lakh was unveiled in Goa in the presence of the Goa Food and Drugs Administration minister Vishwajit Rane. Mr Parrikar said:

It is entirely funded by the Centre, which will also bear the maintenance cost for five years.

The laboratory, mounted on a bus will travel across the state and check food samples on the spot. Mr Parrikar said this would be the first ever ‘Food Safety on Wheel’ vehicle in the country. The laboratory will help in the on-the-spot testing of food items and curb adulteration. He continued:

Besides this, it will also educate people about nutrition and importance of safe food. The mobile lab will do away with the need to get the food samples to the FDA laboratory near Panaji for tests. It will cut the delays. As the time would be reduced, action can be initiated immediately, if the food samples are found unsatisfactory.

The laboratory, even though mobile, doesn’t slim out on the technology that it needs to function daily. The van comes fully equipped with gadgets such as a milk analyser, hot air oven, hot plate, mixer grinder, digital weighing scale, power generator, air conditioner, and more. It will be used to conduct tests for common adulterants in milk, water, edible oils and other food items, and make it possible to draw on-the-spot samples and generate instant reports of the analysis.

This is the first ever mobile food testing laboratory in India, and it might prompt the rest of country to launch more of such labs in the country to try and curb the problem of adulterated food.