Food safety van launched to check adulteration in Ludhiana

As many as 40 different types of tests on food can be conducted in the van and the report will be available on the spot

The health department launched a food testing van on Tuesday to check food, milk and beverage adulteration in the district.

The food safety van being launched by health department officials in Ludhiana on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

Civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Kumar Bagga along with health department official flagged off the van in Ludhiana district.

On the occasion, district health officer Dr Rajesh Garg said the van will remain stationed in the city for over a month and anyone could get food, milk and beverage samples checked by paying Rs 50. The results will be given within 10 minutes, he added.

“This is a good initiative taken by the department of food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) amid the festive season when incidents of adulteration are rising due to high demand,” said Dr Garg.

He said that the testing van was in Jalandhar earlier, but now, it has arrived in Ludhiana where it will be stationed for a month.

“We will try to extend its stay for over two months. Further, we are also formulating schedule of the testing van so that residents are aware of it,” he added.

Dr Garg said that as many as 40 different types of tests on food can be conducted in the van and the report will be available on the spot.

The food safety van will detect fats and adulterants including urea, sucrose, starch, adulteration in milk and synthetic colours. Besides milk, it will also conduct other tests for checking adulteration in food items.

The van is fully equipped with analytical instruments including milk analyser, hot air over, hot plate, multi-parameter hand-held meter, digital refractometer, mixer-grinder and digital weighing scale.

However, Dr Garg clarified that the test results could not be used to take legal action.