THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a move to prevent the flow of adulterated vegetables from other states, the state government has decided to introduce licensing and registration for 11,000-odd vegetable vendors across the state from September 1.
Vehicles involved in the inter-state transport of vehicles will henceforth be asked to keep a copy of the registration forms of the retail or wholesale outlets they have served.
While retailers with a turnover of less than Rs 12 lakh will have to obtain a licence, the bigger players and wholesalers will have to take a registration.
Registration has been made possible as two of the state’s three analytical labs (Thiruvananhapuram and Ernakulam) have been upgraded to accredited levels.
“From September 1, we can do our own testing without depending on other private labs. The Kozhikode lab too will get state-of-the-art equipment in a year’s time,” Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar said in the Assembly on Thursday.
He said that the move to introduce registration would bring in much-needed accountability in the sale of vegetables in the state.
“As of now, it is difficult to fix responsibility when vegetables coming from other states are found to possess high pesticide content,” he added.
Vegetables, unlike other food items, are not labelled. It is out of the tax net too. The minister said that it was also found that vegetables produced in Tamil Nadu had high levels of pesticides. Hotels and restaurants that source vegetables already have registration.
“Now, even when vehicles are monitored at check posts, it is virtually impossible to identify not just the source but also the destination of the vegetables,” the minister said.
When registration comes into force, Food Safety officials will not be functioning in a vacuum; they can pull up at least one end of the business.
Say for instance, a random check reveals polluted vegetables in an inter-state truck. The vehicle will now have records (registration forms) that will lead the officials to the outlets where it had offloaded its product. “These outlets can then produce bills which can lead us to the source outside the state,” Food Safety commissioner T.V. Anupama said.
