Union ministry of food processing Industries sanctioned 3.39 crores to upgrade the food safety and testing facility at Tocklai Tea research Institute, Jorhat, Assam. It was previously delayed due to the pandemic situation in the country.
Objective behind the step is to promote the safer consumption and knocking out the adulteration happening in food items.
Government further claims, this upgradation will render the research Institute to be one of the state-of-the-art facility in the country and especially northeast, serving the quality checking processes vividly and effectively.
“Due to less manpower and the effect of Covid-19 in their state, the plan for the food processing lab is still underway. Many employees in the institute are affected from Covid-19 and some are recovering from it. They are also looking for more manpower but due to the pandemic they are unsure about the plans of the food processing lab as of now. Getting more manpower seems to be difficult at this point of time.” via reuters.
They added, “Safety of the employees plays an important role. We are hoping that the vaccine of Covid-19 will come by December, so we could start our plans smoothly and safely. We are really glad that MoFPI has sanctioned the project, but due to the unavoidable circumstances there will be a delay in starting the project and we haven’t planned anything much so we can’t comment further.” authority further added.
Considering this upgradation it is being further claimed that this will broaden the range of products that can be tested. The testing can be done for many agricultural and horticultural stuffs rather than tea after the amelioration.