To create awareness on food safety, a Food Safety Stall by State Food Safety Authority, under the banner “Ensuring Food Safety: a Global Priority” was launched at Heritage Village Kisama on Saturday.
Launching the stall, deputy director of Food Safety Standards Authority of India, Pawan Kumar, said Nagaland reported minimal cases of food adulteration compared to other regions in the country.
He said such stall will create awareness among the public about prevalent types of food adulteration and elaborated that stall, equipped with Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials in the local language, will serve as a valuable resource for the public to understand and combat adulteration effectively.
Kumar expressed concerns about the rise in forgery, counterfeit products, and the sale of substandard or expired food items in the market due to the growing population. To address the issue, he suggested deployment of mobile “food safety on wheels” units for rapid testing and immediate action against substandard products.
Kumar also emphasized the extensive network of over 200 labs across the country to ensure robust testing and analysis. It may be noted that Nagaland has a single state public health laboratory located in Paramedical, Kohima, where both enforcement and surveillance samples undergo testing. Enforcement samples were related to non-confirmatory matters, while surveillance samples were initially assessed.
Speaking on the context to Nagaland and adulteration, Food safety representative, Dimapur, Kezangullie Yimchunger, mentioned that on testing they discovered adulteration of nicotine and tobacco in paan masala and ricebran refined oil which were sold in the market.
In this regard, the authorities of food safety informed that testing of food standards in the laboratory setup can be observed during the Hornbill Festival. A licensing and registration booth has also been established as part of the initiative by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Food Safety Wing, Kohima.