VISAKHAPATNAM:The German testing and certification major, TUV SUD, opened its state-of-the-art seafood, spices and commodity testing laboratory in the city Wednesday. It was inaugurated by Dirk Eilers, a member of the board of the TUV SUD management. This comes as a major boost for the Port City, a major seafood exporting centre in the country.
Spread over 20,000 sft area, the testing lab will have the latest testing, inspection and certification facilities on par with international standards. It will conduct sampling and contaminant analysis, DNA testing for identification of species and toxin analysis among many more, to identify chemical and microbiological impurities. Prior testing will not only help in detection of antibiotic residues or microbiological contamination at an early stage but would decrease the risk of rejection of the products and also help improve the reputation of the exporters in the market.
The testing lab will help address issues of managing safety, quality and logistics throughout the supply chain besides the quality assurance services acting as a quality gate between producers, manufacturers and buyers.
The lab will also house experienced food safety auditors to offer certification for BRC, HACCP, ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000. Some globally recognised seafood inspection services at the lab will include During Production (DUPRO) inspection, Initial Production Check (IPC), Final Random Inspection (FRI), hygiene inspection, post-shipment inspection, packaging container and storage checks.
TUV SUD South Asia head Niranjan Nadkarni said that this would be the 16th lab of the company in the South Asian region. “This lab will present us with the opportunity to improve our footprint in South Asia. We look forward to working closely with local exporters and help them improve the acceptability of their consignments across the globe,” he added.
A report by Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) disclosed that seafood worth Rs 33,441.61 crore was exported from India, where the Vizag port exported the highest amount of seafood from the country worth Rs 7,578.27 crore till now this fiscal. Similarly, spices exports from India had touched Rs 3,976.65 crore as per Spices Board report in September this fiscal.
