The Kochi Corporation pressed its mobile food testing lab into action on Wednesday, besides conducting an inspection at the Thevara market.
Officials, led by the Corporation Additional Secretary, examined fish stalls at the market. No instances of ammonia usage in fish was noticed during the inspection, according to a communication issued by Mayor M. Anilkumar.
Incidentally, the Opposition councillors had on Saturday criticised the civic body for failure to make use of the facility, which was facilitated by a new-generation private bank.
Though the Health Minister had inaugurated the lab in January, the civic body could not make use of it. The Corporation even failed to use the facilities that the bank had handed over to it as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative, Antony Kureethara and M.G. Aristotle, Congress leaders in the Council, had alleged.
The Opposition councillors had also said that the civic body had failed to initiate steps for obtaining the services of a food safety officer from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for the lab. They had also suggested that the Corporation hand over the facility to the Food Safety authorities in the event of the civic body not being in a position to operate it.
The lab can be used for quality check of oil, water, milk, and other food products. It was for the first time that a civic body had set up such a facility in the State. The operation of the lab, which cost โน41 lakh,ย will be extended across the city with the support of a few agencies, said the communication issued by the Mayor.
