It was a milestone achievement for the National Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Authority.
Their National Animal Health and Food testing laboratory has been certified for histamine testing.
Histamine is a substance that plays a major role in many allergic reactions, dilating blood vessels and making the vessel walls abnormally permeable.
The accreditation ceremony was attended by various stakeholders from the government and private sectors.
It comes after decades of negotiation to have the National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority’s Animal Health and Food Testing Laboratory certified for histamine testing.
Basically, what it means is all fish products will now be tested in the country rather than overseas.
So far the National Fisheries Authority has spent over K3 million towards having the facility approved.
It will also reduce the cost of testing abroad and restore confidence to consumers that fish products from PNG are safe to consume.
The histamine testing targets the European Union Market. Recently, EU has allowed for duty free access of PNG Tuna stocks.
In so doing, PNG has to comply with its condition’s, one of it been the testing of histamine.
Chairman of the Testing Laboratory Accreditation Board, Reddy Kuama, urged NAQIA to maintain compliance to the conditions of accreditation.
He said, full surveillance will be carried out to ensure compliance to regulations is adhered to.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FvjM5KMWyss%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
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