The Agriculture department is streamlining the collection of surveillance samples for testing vegetables and fruits sold in the market for pesticide residues, given the growing emphasis on safe-to-eat foods.
The modifications are designed to ensure that samples are collected from all 152 local body blocks in Kerala in a systematic manner. The testing laboratory, the Pesticide Residue Research and Analytical Laboratory (PRRAL) under the Kerala Agricultural University’s (KAU) College of Agriculture at Vellayani, will publish the results on its website every month.
The department finalised the decisions on the basis of a proposal made by the Director of Research, KAU, observing that the ‘Safe to Eat Project’ needs to play a more “proactive role” in making stakeholders aware about the dangers of pesticide residues.
The proposal, in turn, was based on the findings of two review meetings on the project held in September. Under the ‘Safe to Eat’ project, vegetable and fruit samples are collected from public markets, farm lands, eco shops, and main check-posts and tested for pesticide residues.
“The modifications are designed to make the exercise more systematic and ensure that the samples get collected from all over the State,” Madhu Subramanian, Director of Research, KAU, said. The sources of the fruit and vegetable samples also will be mentioned in the reports so as to put pressure on stakeholders to ensure that pesticide-free vegetables and fruits are sold, he said.
As per the revised sample collection protocol, surveillance samples will be collected from four blocks every month. The schedule will be fixed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the PRRAL. In this manner, all 152 blocks in the State can be covered in a little over three years. The results of the analysis will be uploaded on the PRRAL website on the first working day of the succeeding month.
A government order on the modifications noted that the PRRAL head and the FSSAI Commissioner (Kerala) will ink an MoU on “mutually agreed action plans”.
Every three months, the collected data will also be analysed to generate a clear picture on the prevalence of pesticide residues. These data will be published on the PRRAL website and scientific publications, the government order said.
In May this year, the State government had cleared ₹13.34 crore for a vegetable development scheme, of which ₹20 lakh is to be used for pesticide residue analysis.
