The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to buy high-tech equipment for its food testing laboratories to identify more contaminants in food and farm products.
At present, 10 medical science universities are tasked with testing food ingredients and agricultural products. The FDA will establish a central laboratory in the near future to facilitate their operations under one umbrella, said Rasoul Dinarvand, head of the FDA, quoted by ILNA.
Regulating the food producing sector is a task delegated to more than one organization; securing food safety does not rest solely with the ministry of health and medical education, he said. “The ministry of agriculture jihad is partly responsible, and health units of various departments are responsible for monitoring the performance of restaurants, super markets, and the food supply chains.”
On the enhanced supervision of rice imports in the last calendar year (ended March 20), Dinarvand said the FDA has plans “to gear up testing laboratories.” The FDA has a number of focus areas among which widely consumed products are of high priority. Reducing contaminants and pesticide residue in farm produce is also on the agenda.
The quality of supervision within the food sector would be improved by increasing inspection staff and purchasing sophisticated equipment. The number of regulators and inspectors must increase from the current 1,500, to enable the relevant organizations to increase and tighten regulations on the food sector, he said.
