MELVYN MISQUITA
PANAJI
Confused by Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) tests and concerned about the presence formalin in fish sold at markets across the State?
Help is now at hand and people visiting fish markets will soon be in a position to test for themselves the presence or absence of high levels of formalin in fish.
A simple, cost-effective Rapid Detection Kit to detect presence of artificially induced formalin in fish is expected to be made available within the next 10 days.
Two Rapid Detection Kits (CIFtest) to detect adulteration of Formaldehyde (formalin) and Ammonia in fresh fish were developed by two women scientists, Laly Jawahar and Priya ER of ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology at Kochi earlier this year and will now be commercially available to people.
According to ICAR-CIFT, fresh fish is highly perishable in nature and there is an emerging risk of economically motivated adulteration to enhance its shelf life which adversely affects consumer health.
It added that India’s domestic fish market is reported to be selling formaldehyde adulterated fishes, especially in markets located far away from landing centres or production sites.
“Increasing consumer concern on food quality and safety issues had raised urgent demand for rapid, sensitive and portable screening methods. Taking these aspects into consideration, ICAR-CIFT developed two rapid detection kits to check adulteration of fresh fish with formaldehyde (formalin) and ammonia,” said ICAR-CIFT Head of Fish Processing Division Dr Ashok Kumar K.
“Special emphasis was given to make this kit as non-destructive, simple, cost effective and consumer friendly method, to suit its use in domestic markets, food inspectors, regulators and general public.”
Providing details of the formalin Rapid Detection Kits to The Goan, Dr Kumar said these kits are affordable and very easy to use.
“While a laboratory may take about 2-3 days to test for formalin in fish, these kits provide instant results. Each kit consists of 25 simple paper strips, reagent solution and standard chart for comparing results,” he added.
“A person needs to rub the strip to the fish and then place a drop of chemical solution on the strip. If the strip turns blue, it would test positive for formalin.”
“It may be mentioned that naturally occurring formalin in fish is less than 1 ppm (parts per million) and this kit will detect formalin from 4 ppm onwards.”
“We developed about 1,000 such kits and gave them free of cost to various government departments and agencies across the country. About 20 of these kits were given to Goa,” said Dr Kumar. In a bid to make these kits commercially available in the market, the CIFT last week transferred the technology to HiMedia Laboratories Pvt Ltd, one of top three brands in microbiology in the world.
“HiMedia Laboratories has the expertise and capabilities to manufacture these kits in large scale and these kits should be available very soon,” said Dr Kumar.
When contacted, Shashikant Avhad, senior business development manager at HiMedia Laboratories, told The Goan that the first commercial lot of these kits would be made available in 8-10 days.
“This kit will be simple and economical, so that the common man can afford the kits and use them easily. While we have not finalised the price of these kits, we expect each kit containing 25 strips to be priced at about Rs 200-300,” Avhad said.
“In the past, HiMedia has developed and launched kits for detection of adulteration in milk and detection of iodine in the salts for community benefit.”
The ICAR-CIFT has stated that “surreptitious use of undesirable substances in fresh fish can only be avoided by ensuring proper use of cold chain for fish and fish products during processing, storage, transportation and display for sale.”
