Japanese method adopted for checking fish: Vishwajit

NT NETWORK

Panaji

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday in a video message posted on social media claimed that the Quality Council of India has adopted the Japanese method of testing fish samples from the trucks arriving at the Pollem in South Goa and Patradevi in North Goa check-posts.

However, the method adopted by the QCI for spot test is the same old one, which had been used by the food and drugs administration. The FDA had used the kits from the Kochi-based Central Institute of Fisheries Technology.

This kit has been recently developed in India, and has  never been used in Japan. 

“Hundreds of trucks used to come to Goa earlier…  Today Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai and myself had a joint meeting, and we have put monitoring systems in place. We have got the government of India agencies placed at the borders. What test the Japanese government accepts… and the level it accepts  to get the fish imported into the country of Japan…. same standards are being applied at the borders in Goa,” Rane asserted in the video message. 

QCI’s fish testing through the CIFT kits has been revealed by the FDA.

In an official communiqué to the department’s food safety officers,  FDA director Jyoti Sardesai has informed that as per the action the plan prepared by the QCI, they are using CIFT kits to test the fish samples at the state borders, and that they will also use the CIFT kits to test fish in local fish markets.