The rallying call for Sri Lanka’s much needed Consumer Product Test Lab received a sudden boost when the specialised agency for public health across the world threw its support behind the initiative on 16 February.
“This will assure the speed and high quality of market product testing and lab reports of Sri Lanka’s CAA” said a supportive World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Sri Lanka Dr. Jacob Kumaresan on 16 February in Colombo. WHO’s Dr Kumaresan was discussing with Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen in Colombo about WHOs position on the proposal to establish a Product Testing & Safety Lab for Sri Lanka’s apex Consumer protection body, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).
Joining Minister Bathiudeen were Senior Advisor to Minister Bathiudeen Himali Jinadasa, Director of Hettigoda Industries (Pvt) LtdVidyani Hettigoda and CAA officials. “The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) seek WHOs assistance to CAA’s proposed Product Testing & Safety Lab.
This project, once constructed, shall be a milestone in our Consumer Protection history. Our proposal for the lab, if supported, can enhance Sri Lanka’s consumer protection greatly from where it is present,” Minister Bathiudeen said.
“CAA collects samples of food items and tests for quality parameters. CAA’s experience is that monitoring mechanisms such as testing are not sufficient enough to eliminate the malpractices in the supply chain. The mechanism is also not able to cover the entire country.”
“It appears that Sri Lanka has multiple numbers of labs for product testing and this is not as supportive as it seems.
We suggest a single, centralised national level lab for all frequent testing of consume products. Such a centralised lab will assure the high quality of test reports, speed, stronger legal protection and better labelling,” said WHO’s Dr Kumaresan.
“This is a promising project but not a responsibility of one Ministry but a joint effort. Funds could be sourced from international agencies such as the World Bank if CAA proposal can be jointly worked with the stakeholders of legal, health and food processing sectors.”
“In fact, the proposed CAA Lab is a good exercise in Consumer Protection in Sri Lanka since all the stakeholders.”
The samples collected from the market by CAA are presently not sent to a single, centralised unit for reports but to multiple agencies—the Government Analyst, City Analyst, Medical Research Institute (MRI), Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) and Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI). This burdens CAA processes and results in unexpected delays, at times.
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