: Uttar Pradesh has expanded its food and drug testing infrastructure to all 18 divisions, nearly quadrupling food sample testing capacity and increasing medicine testing capacity almost five-fold to speed up detection of adulterated food and substandard drugs.
The Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) has set up laboratories in 12 divisions and upgraded existing facilities in six others. Annual food testing capacity has increased from 30,000 to 1.08 lakh samples, while medicine testing capacity has risen from 12,500 to 60,000 samples.
The new laboratories are in Azamgarh, Basti, Devipatan, Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Chitrakoot Dham, Mirzapur, Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Saharanpur. Laboratories in Lucknow, Agra, Meerut, Jhansi, Gorakhpur and Varanasi have been upgraded.
Commissioner FSDA Roshan Jacob said recruitment of 357 Junior Analysts (Drug) had been completed, while selection for 457 Junior Analyst (Food) posts was underway to address the shortage of technical staff.
Surveillance testing began in the new laboratories on October 31. The expansion is expected to strengthen enforcement and give a boost to the department’s ‘Shuddh Hi Shubh Hai’ campaign against food adulteration and substandard products.