National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Kundli (NIFTEM-K), An Institute of National Importance under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Govt of India in collaboration with Agilent Technologies is organizing a 3 days Training Program on “Hands-on-Training on Quantification of Ethylene Oxide & 2 CE in various Spices by GC-MS/MS” for technical officials from State Food Testing Lab (SFTL) and FSSAI notified food testing laboratories.

The training program was inaugurated by Dr. Harinder Singh Oberoi, Director, NIFTEM-K, in presence of Dr. Samir Vyas, Country General Manager, Agilent Technologies, Sh. Ajai Prakash Gupta, Director, QA, FSSAI, Dr. Ajay Singh Bisht, Scientist at Spice Board, , and Dr. Komal Chauhan, Dean Research & Outreach and Head CFRA on 06 August 2024. Senior officers from NIFTEM-K and Agilent Technologies were present during the inaugural function besides the particpants. The event is being organized jointly by NIFTEM-K and Agilent Technologies from August 6th to 8th, 2024 at NIFTEM-K to impart hands-on training to 23 participants.

The event started with a welcome speech by Dr. Komal Chauhan (CFRA Head & Dean Research, NIFTEM-Kundli),. Dr. Neetu Taneja (Associate Head, CFRA) explained about the structure of the training programme, profile of the resource personnel and also highlighted its main goals and reasons behind the crucial need for precise measurement methods to ensure food safety. Dr. Ajai Prakash Gupta highlighted the importance of accurate and precise testing of contaminants, especially from the regulatory compliance perspective. He urged participants to make the most of this opportunity to discover new technology and suggested to include different food types in their training to expand their knowledge.

Dr. Dinesh Singh Bisht talked about the ETO and 2-CE limits in different countries. He also mentioned about the procedure for analysis of 2-CE brought out by FSSAI .

Dr. Sameer Vyas, CGM, Agilent Technology, appreciated the initiatives taken by NIFTEM-K, complemented the NIFTEM-K team and the Agilent team for working coherently in designing and developing a well structured training programme having orientation for enhancing the skill set of the lab analysts. He also emphasised that coming together of Government, Private sector and Public sector will help in improving the awareness among consumers about food safety, especially about the contaminants.

Dr. Harinder Singh Oberoi stress on the need to create a robust and accurate testing of ETOs not only in spices, but other commodities as well. He also mentioned that organizations like NIFTEM-K and FSSAI can play a significant role in anticipating the detrimental effects of contaminants like Acrylamides, endocrine disruptors and veterinary drug residues. Dr. Oberoi emphasised that India should set limits for all such contaminants across different product categories based on structured surveillance and country specific data. He requested Dr.Vyas to support NIFTEM-K in establishing a Food Safety research centre which can be used for capacity building and improving the skill set of the staff associated with analysis and also generating a lot of scientific information on existing and emerging contaminants which can eventually be shared with FSSAI for establishing robust standards.