AP State yet to get food laboratory of its own

Vijayawada: Even after the division of state was completed more than four years ago, the state government is yet to focus its attention on establishing food laboratory for conducting tests on food samples. The state is still depending on laboratory located at Nacharam in Hyderabad for conducting tests on food samples collected from various places in the state. 

The laboratory located in Nacharam was built in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and now mainly being used by Telangana government for checking food samples collected in the state. In the absence of food laboratory in the state, food samples collected during raids on hotels, restaurants and other eateries are being sent to Nacharam laboratory for quality tests. 

The state has three regional laboratories located in Guntur, Vizag and Kurnool and these are used to conduct tests on food samples collected from Angwanwadi centres, government hostels and temples. These regional laboratories have no statutory powers to curb adulteration. As there was no food laboratory in the state, many hotels, restaurants and eateries are violating quality food norms and serving sub-standard food to customers.  

The raids conducted by the food inspectors on restaurants and hotels in the capital region of Vijayawada and Guntur exposed the poor quality of food being served to customers. Food safety department closed a restaurant on Museum Road in Vijayawada two months ago after noticing that sub-standard food was being served to customers. 

In Guntur, stale mutton was found in some hotels and meat shops. Such cases are reported in other parts of state also. These food samples were sent to food laboratory in Nacharam for lab tests. If the Andhra Pradesh government has its own lab, the test reports can be collected speedily, and action can be taken against erring hotels, eateries and restaurants.  

CPM state committee member Ch Baburao alleged that the state government was grossly neglecting the health of people. Stating that the food laboratory was important to conduct tests, he demanded the government to immediately establish a laboratory in the capital region. The CPM leader alleged that the government was giving top priority for populist schemes and neglecting important institutions like state food laboratory.  

The state food laboratory has been included in the Tenth Schedule of the constitution and the Centre had sanctioned Rs 9 crore for upgrading the regional food laboratory located in Visakhapatnam.  Assistant food controller Dr N Purnachandra Rao said the government will upgrade the existing regional laboratory in Visakhapatnam.

He said proposals have been made for allocation of land for establishing food laboratory with state-of-art technology in Amaravati and added the food laboratory has statutory powers and action can be taken against erring hotels and restaurants based on the reports given by it. YSRCP doctors cell Krishna district president Dr Mahaboob Shaik said there should be strict vigil on food being served by hotels and restaurants. 

He said many people are getting health complications like gastro-enteritis due to eating unhygienic food being served by hotels and restaurants. He demanded the government to immediately take steps to set up state food laboratory to conduct the lab tests and punish the guilty of serving unhygienic food to the customers.