City fish consumers in grip of fear

Staff Correspondent

Shillong, July 11: Notwithstanding the fright of the fish consumers in the state, Meghalaya office of food safety maintains that all apprehension on the presence of the chemical called formalin in imported fishes will be known by this week.

Following Nagaland and Manipur, Assam has also banned the sale of fishes imported from south India after traces of formalin was found in the random test carried out a few days ago. Formalin is said to be a preservative chemical and is hazardous for human consumption.

The Sentinel spoke to the Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety DBS Mukhim on Wednesday to gauge her perpective on the issue which is now a talk among the fish eating populace of the state.

“As far as a our continuous interventions in checking the consumable food in the market is concerned, there has been nothing wrong with the imported fishes from the southern states,” the Assistant Commissioner of stated adding, “based on the information from our neighboring states, we took suo motto action by collecting sample of fishes from the market and sent the same to a Guwahati laboratory.”

“We are expecting the report by the end of this week and the report will enable us to formally declare on the safety of the fishes imported for consumption”, stated Mukhim, even as she added that going by the consistent test carried out in the past, indications are that there should be no cause of panic amongst the fish consuming community.