THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has asked the agriculture department officials to take stern action, including prosecution, against vendors who sell vegetables and fruits contaminated with pesticides.
He was chairing a high-level meeting of agriculture, health and food safety officials at the secretariat on Tuesday.
Following complaints from the consumers about organic vegetable shops selling contaminated fruits and vegetables, the Chief Minister urged the officials to undertake stringent field checks and inform the public about the outcome.
“The steps taken against having contaminated fruits and vegetables should be informed to the public. There should be a mechanism to check the quality of fruits and vegetables at the sorting centre itself.
Also the commodities being imported to the state from neighbouring states should be checked at the respective farm houses,” said Mr Chandy.
Recently, when Food Safety officials tested the quality of 10 types of fruits and vegetables, apple and spinach were found to be contaminated.
But at the meeting, Food Safety officials said that the poison level was at a dangerous level and they maintained that there was dearth of testing labs due to which the result would be available only after a week.
Apart from spinach and apple, curry leaves, coriander leaves and pudina leaves are notorious for having higher rate of pesticides.
The meeting decided to hold talks with the wholesale dealers of fruits and vegetables to stem the arrival of contaminated stuff.
Agriculture Minister K. P. Mohanan, Health Minister V. S. Sivakumar and Food Safety Commissioner T. V. Anupama also attended the meeting.
