Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The central government has set up a National Food Laboratory under the Indo-Nepal bilateral agreement, which will make it easier and quicker to test food products being brought into the country from Nepal.
Earlier, all the imported samples with legal sanctity were sent to National Food Laboratory, Kolkata, for testing.
The National Food Laboratory of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a statutory body under the union health ministry, was inaugurated by Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday in Bihar’s Raxaul, situated at the Indo-Nepal border.
Officials said the laboratory had been established under the Indo-Nepal bilateral agreement to reduce the time to test imported food samples brought into Raxaul from Nepal.
Now the exporters from Nepal would find it easier to export more and more food products into India, the minister said.
The laboratory is likely to get the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation by July-August this year.
They will test and analyse all the imported samples under the product categories of cereal and cereal products, fat and oil, spices and condiments, fruits and vegetable products and packaged drinking.
The minister also said that India is willing to provide any assistance needed to get NABL accreditation to the Kathmandu food lab.