MARGAO
As the formalin-laced fish scare raised its ugly head at the border check post in Polem during the weekend, questions have come back to haunt fish loving Goans as well as agencies whether the fish entering the State is free from formalin.
Exactly half-a-decade ago when FDA officer Iva Fernandes confirmed on July 12, 2018 over the presence of formalin in fish at the wholesale fish market, many questions still remain unanswered till date.
If activists found lack of transparency at the fishing testing centre at the Polem-Canacona border during the weekend, the situation seemed no different at Goa’s wholesale fish market, where fish entering the state from across the borders is sold to retailers.
A visit to Goa’s lone wholesale fish market at Margao in the wee hours of Sunday revealed that fish transporting trucks made a beeline to enter the market to sell fish to retailers from across the State. Just at the entrance to the wholesale fish market, one would come across a small structure housing the office of Quality Council of India, with officials conducting tests to check the quality of the fish. Entry to the office is barred and the results of the fish samples is not revealed, but forwarded to the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
As the formalin scare raised its head at the Polem border check post, the same old questions have all come to haunt fish loving Goans again, with questions raised over the quality of the tests and the absence of transparency while conducting these tests.
If the activists and media persons raised the question of transparency at the Polem border during the weekend, one question that is often asked in wholesale fish market circles is why officials do not conduct random testing of fish samples brought in the wholesale fish market, but test the samples provided by the traders.
“To bring in better transparency, the officials manning the QCI testing laboratory should go out of the office to collect samples from trucks and containers”, remarked a hotelier.
That’s not all. When the SGPDA had promised to set up fish testing laboratory at the PDA-owned wholesale fish market, the officials had promised fish loving Goans that the entire fish testing process would not only be transparent, but public would be allowed to watch the testing from a distance to ensure transparency.
Last year in July, when the SGPDA had witnessed an uproar over the fish testing at the wholesale fish market, FDA Director Jyoti Sardesai was quick to point out that all is well with the fish testing facility.
Sardesai said the FDA had outsourced fishing testing to Quality Council of India, adding that fish testing is being carried out at the Patradevi and Polem check posts and at the wholesale fish market, adding that fish entering the State is tested twice, once at the borders and then at the wholesale fish market.
