DOHA: The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) has opened a new state-of-the-art laboratory at the Abu Samra border post for testing pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables.
Dr Saleh bin Ali Al Merri, assistant secretary general for medical affairs at SCH, opened the facility in the presence of senior officials from the SCH, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Environment.
The SCH said that the lab is equipped with the latest technology that meets international standards. It can assess and calculate pesticide residues in imported fruits and vegetables through analyzing samples to get accurate and quick results according to GCC specifications.
SCH said that three hours are enough to analyse the samples in the new lab. The facility comes as part of a five-year national strategy to set up internationally-accredited laboratories in different ports of entry to test imported food products.
The plan is to make the Central Food Laboratory to a referral lab, with establishment of the new labs in different ports of entry. The 2013-2018 national strategy seeks to integrate laboratory services and unify their standards.
Wasan Al Baker, director of Environmental Heath and Food Safety at the SCH, said the laboratory will work as a safety gate to monitor the quality of fruit and vegetables entering the country.
Najat Ali Abdul Malik, laboratories supervisor at the SCH, said the new lab can test for more than 270 pesticide residues with an advanced level of accuracy of 0.01 part of a million.
She said there is a future plan to upgrade the lab to handle 400 pesticide residues, in addition to establishing a unit for testing meat and poultry products. More such laboratories will be set up in all the ports of entry in future.
The Peninsula
