Vegetables not checked for quality
PANJIM, AUG 8
A large quantum of vegetable and fruit products that Goans consume is imported from neighbouring Belgaum in Karnataka, even as people are not too sure on the quality of the stuff they consume was healthy or not.
In the just-concluded Monsoon Session of the Goa Legislative Assembly Canacona MLA Vijay Pai Khot raised the issue questioning the quality of the vegetable and chicken products entering the Goan market from Belgaum.
Khot had raised the issue during one of the demands for grants sessions wherein he highlighted apart from vegetables even the chickens that are imported into the State were injected with hormones for faster growth.
When contacted, Director of Food and Drugs Administration said vegetables were farm products and as a result this department was not responsible for checking their quality. Farm products are not listed in FDA’s definition of food, he stated.
Director Agriculture Department S S Tendulkar said Goa receives nearly 70 per cent of vegetable produce from Belgaum. However, he informed, there was no system in place to ascertain quality of vegetables grown locally and those imported from outside the State.
Tendulkar said the process of checking quality of vegetables was an expensive one and required a sophisticated lab.
Elaborating on Tendulkar’s assertion, officials at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research said apart from having a sophisticated laboratory, the process for checking quality of vegetables requires highly skilled personnel.
Basically, the officials described, two types of equipments – High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Liquid Chromatography (GPC) — are sufficient to carry out specialised checks on vegetables to ascertain their quality standards.
During the Monsoon Session Opposition MLAs cornered the ruling faction on the issue by asserting locally produced vegetables were rich in quality than the ones sourced from outside. They charged that the Horticulture Department had done nothing to encourage local farmers to give priority to these locally grown products.
