SHILLONG, JUNE 4: With ‘Maggi’noodles facing a ban threat in Meghalaya if it is tested positive for overdose of monosodium glutamate and lead in the popular snack, it is also found that Meghalaya do not have a food or drug analyst for several years now.
On Wednesday Meghalaya chief secretary PBO Warjri had informed that the government is likely to banned selling of ‘Maggi’ noodles in the state if the samples that have been sent for testing are positive.
Because of the absence of food and drug analyst, the state government had to be send the legal samples to Guwahati for testing.
The Food and Drug Testing laboratory at the Pasteur Institute has the capability only to “test water.” The post of food analyst has been lying vacant from 2007, while the post of drug analyst has been lying vacant for over five years.
This fact came to fore after the Civil Society of Women’s Organisation (CSWO) took legal samples of Maggi for testing at the government-run laboratory.
“There are only a few Assistant Chemists and an Assistant Analysts. Further we were informed that there was no Reagent and there was no method to test simple ingredients like Monosodium Glutamate and they are capable only to test water,” CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing said.
The situation is precarious as not just food, but spurious drugs have got into the market time and again in the state and without the analyst(s) it is still not known how the health department goes through its responsibility of safeguarding public health.- By Our Reporter
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