Food Standards Body Launches Project To Tackle Food Contamination

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched an innovative project to tackle the growing concern of microplastic contamination in food, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The Health Ministry said the project's primary objectives include developing standard protocols for micro/nano-plastic analysis, conducting intra- and inter-laboratory comparisons, and generating critical data on consumer microplastic exposure levels.

Recognising microplastic pollution as an emerging threat that requires immediate attention, the project titled 'Micro-and Nano-Plastics as Emerging Food Contaminants: Establishing Validated Methodologies and Understanding the Prevalence in Different Food Matrices' was started in March this year to develop and validate analytical methods for detecting micro and nano-plastics in various food products, as well as assess their prevalence and exposure levels in India, it said.