Eurofins Analytical Services India, a member of Eurofins Food & Feed Services business line, announced the launch of a mobile residue monitoring laboratory to support farmers and exporters with faster and accurate testing services near farms and procurement markets.
With the changes in agriculture-related laws, farmers and buyers or exporters are expected to reach national markets and, hence, need to make a fast purchase decision. One of the essential quality criteria for export-related commodities purchases are pesticide residues and toxins. Currently, buyers or exporters are largely using the services of nationally reputed labs to get results for this business. In lower MRLs or strict destination country regulations like the EU, samples are also sent for testing at reputed international labs like Eurofins.
With the ongoing changes in regulatory and business landscapes, the transaction time that is buyer taking the sample from farmer and deciding to buy the produce, need considerable reduction so that farmers have more options to sell their produce to different buyers as per the quality of produce. One of the critical factors that can reduce this transaction time is the sample transportation and analytical testing time. The mobile residue monitoring lab near major mandi or farm area can reduce the turnaround time by more than 50% and facilitate faster trade.
The mobile pesticide residues monitoring lab will be equipped with highly sophisticated instruments like LCMSMS, GCMSMS with capacity to test 500+ pesticide residues and screen Aflatoxins and Ochratoxins in commodities. The lab will focus on major export commodities: basmati rice, cumin, chilli, and soya to help farmers evaluate the quality of their export worthy produce in the shortest time. It will benefit the farmers by providing services at their doorstep where the mobile lab will be stationed near the mandi area to help farmers test their crop in the shortest possible time without shipping samples to any other city.
Moreover, crops can be tested for 500+ pesticide residues. Hence farmer can evaluate quickly if it meets the export requirements and get better selling price. It will also provide them with a wider scope where they can test other contaminants like Aflatoxins and Ochratoxins. Adding to the list of benefits, the mobile lab claims to give a faster turnaround time than other conventional labs.
At the launch, chairman of APEDA, M Angamuthu, said, “Eurofins came up with mobile lab to acutely empower the farmers by reducing the TAT (Turn Around Time) that is consequently aimed at increasing the export capacity of India.”
Therefore, there is an immense need for innovative technologies that can FastTrack processes, analyze the quality of the agri-produce and enable the traders and exporters to make faster decisions. Against this backdrop, the mobile lab will promote more innovative solutions in maintaining the quality of the export products and domestic trade in agri commodities. The lab will travel across the country, helping farmers and exporters with reliable, accurate, and faster farm-level analysis.