The Food Safety and Standards Authority vide its order dated 12th July 2022, has advised the FSSAI notified laboratories to strictly comply with the timelines especially for regulatory samples as mentioned below. It has come to the notice of Food Authority that several FSSAI notified laboratories are not adhering to the time limit specified for testing of regulatory samples as per FSS Act, 2006 and Rules thereon.
In case of domestic regulatory samples, the Food Analyst shall issue the signed report within 14 days of the receipt of the article of food for analysis as per the format specified under FSS (Laboratory and Sampling Analysis) Regulation, 2011. Provided that, in case the sample cannot be analyzed within 14 days of its receipt, the Food Analyst shall inform the Designated Officer and the Commissioner of Food Safety giving reasons and specifying the time to be taken for analysis.
In case of Import, the Notified laboratory or Referral laboratory shall provide the laboratory analysis report within five days from the date of receipt of the sample. If the sample cannot be tested by the laboratory within the specified time, it shall state the reasons for the same in writing to the Authorised Officer.
Further, it is also clarified that, when a notified laboratory perform dual roles (i.e both as Primary and Referral laboratory), such laboratory can either function as a Primary laboratory or a Referral laboratory for a single sample. For example, if a laboratory has tested a sample as a Primary laboratory then the appeal against the test results of that particular sample will not be entertained by the same laboratory, irrespective of the fact that the same laboratory is playing the role of a Referral laboratory as well. The same sample will invariably be sent to another Referral laboratory as per the testing capability and scope of that Referral laboratory.
