Top Trends in Food Testing Market in India

Rapid analytical food testing

The Rapid analytical food testing (RAFT) kit is used to detect food pathogens, food allergens, food adulterants, pesticide leftovers, antibiotics residues, and other harmful food toxins in the food. These ready-to-use test kits can be used anywhere and by anyone. The RAFT significantly reduces the time taken to perform a test. For example, traditional techniques for analyzing samples for chemical characteristics such as antibiotics in milk take roughly 2-3 days on average. The time can be cut in half with RAFT authorized kits, to roughly 10-15 minutes. FSSAI has approved 65 RAFT kits to test edible oils, milk, water & alcoholic beverages, meat & meat products, fish & fish products, raw & finished products and automated system for rapid detection of pathogens in food matrices.

The rising consciousness backed with technological upgradation is bringing a new ray of hope for the food testing industry of India. However, there are few hurdles that can cease the growth. lets look what could be most crucial.

Poor lab Infrastructure

A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report from 2021 states that the majority of the country's 340 food testing facilities lack a license from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratory (NABL). The report also raised concern about the lack of reputable laboratories for testing food samples and a lack of consistency in standards across the nation. According to the FSS act, 2006 the standards safety parameters includes microbial contamination, pesticide residues, veterinary drugs, metal contamination, Aflatoxin B1, B2, M1 and M2, naturally occurring toxic substances (agaric acid, hydrocyanic acid, hypericin and safrole), melamine in milk and milk powder, packaging materials used in packaging food shall be of food grade, utensils and crockery used for cooking and serving conforming to BIS specifications, dioxins, chemicals used as food additives, hormones, presence of genetically food, Nutraceuticals, dietary supplements, organic food etc. Keeping in mind the recent infrastructural situation it seems challenging for most of the food testing laboratories of India, to analyze the referred safety standard parameters.

Outdated law

There are lots of major transformations happening in the Indian food Industry. For example, the demand for organic food is rising at a considerable pace. The food processing types and techniques are also witnessing changes with every passing day. Technologies like, cold plasma, radio frequency pasteurization, and gaseous chlorine dioxide are now coming into play. The report of PAC, 2021 says, “A mechanism may be evolved for frequent and regular reviews of the regulatory framework and regulations notified to keep pace with the changing food processing technology and emerging new trends in consumer food taste.” New robust regulations will positively benefit the food testing industry and ensure the well-being of the citizen.

What’s next?

In a recently held virtual event FSSAI stated that they are hopeful about the deployment of next-generation technical tools such as blockchain and machine learning to assure food safety and quality. The advent and the advancement of IOT, blockchain and machine learning marks new possibilities for the whole world, and the food testing industry is no exception. These new tools can revamp the infrastructure of the food testing industry in India and ultimately upgrade the quality of the food produced in the country.