The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has inaugurated its third national food laboratory at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai. The lab was inaugurated on September 29 in presence of FSSAI Chairperson Rita Teaotia and its CEO Arun Singhal.

"This is the third lab that will now be operated along with two existing national laboratories, namely National Food Laboratory (NFL), currently operational at Ghaziabad and Kolkata," FSSAI said in a statement. The National Food Laboratory, Ghaziabad, is being run in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, while NFL in Kolkata is being operated by FSSAI.

NFL JNPT has come up in a PPP mode with the set-up, operate and transfer (SOT) model. Vimta Labs Ltd will be the PPP partner responsible for operating the NFL at JNPT.

The same model has been worked out at the Chennai Port Trust (CPT). With this, FSSAI will have its own laboratories in the east, west, north and south of India.

These are apart from more than 200 NABL accredited FSSAI notified laboratories that form the national food testing network, the statement said. The National Food Laboratory, JNPT, is located on an area of 11,873 square feet on the ground and first floors of Trainees Hostel Building in JNPT Township, Navi Mumbai.

Also Read: FSSAI to introduce warning label on packaged foods to curb junk food consumption

The laboratory has the capability to analyse up to 9,000 samples per month. The National Food Laboratory, JNPT, will be applying for NABL accreditation under the FSSAI-NABL integration assessment category, initially for eight food product categories and will subsequently apply for the enhanced scope of testing based on the number and type of samples.

The laboratory is likely to obtain the NABL accreditation by the end of November 2021 and become fully operational immediately thereafter.