Indian Food Laboratory Network (INFoLNET)
Introduction:
Testing of food products at different levels of supply chain is a critical activity in the entire food safety compliance eco system to ensure that only products, which comply with the Act and regulations are sold in the market. FSS Act, 2006 gives authority to food safety officer to draw samples which are intended for sale or human consumption. Act has also mandated FSSAI to notify laboratories from time to time for testing of various food products in the country.
Currently testing is being done by state and private labs across the country, however, the test reports are not available to FSSAI in real time. The reports are only made available in physical form upon request which makes it impossible to keep this data for future reference.
“INFoLNET is an initiative with bringing all the stakeholders to a common platform for the establishment of a transparent food testing network,” stated FSSAI. While several demonstrations and training programmes have been conducted by the apex food regulator across the country, it rued that despite these, many labs failed to connect with the system.
“The Indian Food Laboratory Network (INFoLNET) is a new platform deployed by FSSAI, with a view to ensure a streamlined and transparent food testing network among all the testing laboratories.”
“The benefits of the portal can be multitude. For the food businesses, all the testing laboratories shall have the same results. For the testing labs, each shall be linked by the type and number of testing services benefiting the clients, while this will be an added barrier of protection for consumers, in terms of food safety. What’s better is that this is mandatory for each laboratory, like food safety training and certification (FoSTaC) is for food businesses.”
INFoLNET building blocks:
- Database of all food testing laboratories along-with their capabilities across the country
- Database of product standards for which testing is to be done
- Process to test all types of samples mentioned above
INFoLNET Users:
- Laboratory
- Food Safety Officer
- Authorized Officer
- Designated Officer
- Food Business Operators
- FSSAI
- Food Safety Commissioner Office
- Research Institutions and other Govt. Agencies
Type of Sampling:
Surveillance/Regulatory:
- Regulatory samples are drawn for a specific objective for e.g. based on a complaint
- Surveillance samples are routine samples drawn randomly in fairly large number from a marketplace/area
Import:
- Drawn at the port from the container at the time of import
- Based on the risk profiling samples are picked up
Compliance:
- Drawn by the FBOs themselves to comply with conditions of License
- Frequency is once in six months for all the products
Others:
- Samples can be picked up by citizens randomly
- They can submit the samples to any FSSAI approved lab
INFoLNET Modules:
Sample Registration:
Initial step is to register the sample in the system. Following users register the sample in the system:
- Surveillance Sample/Enforcement Sample-FSO
- Compliance Sample-FBO
- Import Sample-Authorized Officer
- Citizen Sample-Laboratory
Sample Codification:
- Every sample has to be uniquely identified before it is sent to lab. INFoLNET has a provision to generate sample slip with unique number. FBO, FSO and AO has to generate the sample slip before registration of sample and key in the unique number in INFoLNET at the time of registration.
Lab Management System:
Sample Receipt:
- Once the sample reaches lab, they need to acknowledge it in the system. if the sample is already bar coded, they can proceed for screening else they need to generate a bar code for the same. For citizen sample, Lab needs to capture the sample details. For other samples, data is already captured in the system at the time of sample registration.
Screening:
- At this stage, preliminary screening of sample is done to check the virginity. sample can be rejected if found tampered.
Test Result Entry:
There are several modes of capturing the test data:
- Manual Entry
- Excel Upload
- Through LIMS
Approved and Generation of Test Report:
- Once the test reports are uploaded in the system, it is screened by lab in-charge for final approval and generation of test report. Modification in test data is allowed only before generation of test report.
Mobile Lab:
- Sample Registration
- Qualitative Testing
- Test Report Upload
Surveillance Planning:
- Objective of this module is to enable FSSAI and FSC to create a surveillance plan at state and district level respectively.
Capturing Alerts:
- Provision for Risk Cell to capture disease alerts/recalls in the system so that surveillance planning can be done at regional level.
INFoLNET benefits:
- Availability of test data on real time basis for
- Risk Analysis
- Risk profiling of products, locations, FBOs
- Uniform parametric testing across all facilities for all products
- Know how of lab Capabilities and identification of need for capacity building, re-skilling etc.
- Better surveillance planning
- Improvement in product standards based on historic trends of test-data
- Transparency in sampling procedure
- Need analysis of Lab requirement at a particular geographic location for particular food product, testing facility etc.
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