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FDA wakes up to formalin scare, talks of plan

Samples of fish, fruits and veggies to be randomly tested from markets round the year

| JULY 17, 2018, 07:42 PM IST

the goan I network

PANAJI 

Five days after it triggered a scare and wave of panic that is yet to fully subside, the ‘formalin in fish’ conundrum has finally alerted the State government on its statutory responsibility to police adulteration of fish, fruits and vegetables in markets.   

The Food and Drugs Administration is now drawing up an elaborate plan and strategy by which fish and also fruits and vegetable samples will be randomly tested from markets across the Sate round the year.   

FDA director, Jyoti Sardessai told The Goan on Monday that the agency was currently engaged in the exercise of formulating the plan, including listing the infrastructural and manpower that will be required for the onerous task.   

Sardessai said, the FDA was issued specific instructions by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to prepare the plan and get moving to implement it at the earliest.   

Goa has seen a simmering controversy over safety of fish sold in local markets since Thursday last when FDA officials who raided consignments coming in from neighbouring States claimed that samples tested positive for formaldehyde, indicating its use by traders to preserve the highly perishable and widely consumed commodity.   

The row flared up and took a political colour a few hours after the Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai tweeted to the effect that the fish was fit for consumption quoting the FDA. 

The minister’s tweet was then followed by an official statement from the FDA which said the carcinogenic chemical was “within permissible limits” in the fish 

samples.   

The FDA director told Goan on Monday that the use of the term “permissible limits” commonly used in reports was erroneous and caused all the controversy.   

“The report should have read ‘within safe limits’ instead,” Jyoti Sardessai said.   

She claimed that the tests conducted by FDA officials at 4 am on Thursday were only preliminary spot testing and cannot measure quantities or concentrations of the 

aldehydes.   

“It is an indicative test which only shows possible presence of aldehydes, including formaldeyde and alerts to the need for further elaborate testing,” Sardessai said, adding that the official who spoke to the media after the spot tests did so without authority.   

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