Kerala was only ranked seventh in the ‘State Food Safety Index’ of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in 2022, despite the fact that the number of incidents of food poisoning is rising and the government asserts that safety checks are conducted often throughout the state.
Kerala placed second with 70 points in the 2020–21 index, barely behind Gujarat (72 points). The southern state has dropped five spots in a year. Kerala only managed to earn 57 points in the 2021–22 index, while Tamil Nadu took first place with 82 points.
In the index, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh come before Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Kerala has spent Rs 4.24 crore on inspections over the last five years, according to statistics, to the end of August 2022. Although the opening of a food testing lab in each district had been announced by the health department, this has not yet happened.
Only five of the state’s districts now have testing labs. But none of them have been accredited by the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories). The announced nine new labs are still only on paper.
Only samples that have been seized and examined in accredited labs will be accepted by the courts. The process of updating laboratories and obtaining accreditation is similarly slow.
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