Nineteen Food and Drugs testing laboratories that are being revamped or set up in various states under the World Bank assisted Capacity Building Programme in Food and Drugs will be soon ready for clearance by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), Rita Teotia, Joint Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare informed. The standard operating procedures and policies for all the laboratories are under advanced stage of preparation, she added.

According to Teotia, all 19 food and drug testing laboratories are to apply for NABL accreditation soon. The laboratories are all financed by the central government for the first five years. The support is to extend over all expenses incurred during the first five years including the salary component.

As reported earlier, the programme envisages setting up of 20 new food / drug labs across the country in next two years. All existing laboratories would be renovated through the project. While all new states like Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh would get new laboratories; others will be upgraded with the state-of-the-art facilities. On the whole there would be 50 well-equipped testing laboratories in place.

With the upgraded capacity and the new laboratories, it is expected that about one lakh samples would be tested for safety and quality in an year.