Summary:
PANAJI: The high court of Bombay at Goa on Monday said that it will appoint a scientific panel of experts to establish the permissible limit of naturally occurring formaldehyde in fish . Advocate general Dattaprasad Lawande stated that the state government is not taking the petitions as adversarial and added that it is ultimately the safety of the consumer that is important. The basic lacunae that the court found is that no acceptable standards have been prescribed, he said, adding that the court couldn’t pass any order unless the basic standards are prescribed.Unless the inherent presence of formaldehyde in fish is known, it is difficult to find out what is the addition, he said, adding that if certain directions are to be legally issued, the limit will have to be set. Earlier in the day, the state government submitted to the court a list of five institutions that could set the limit.The institutions include, the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, Dr Babasaheb Sawan Konkan Krishi Vidhyapeth Dapoli, Ratnagiri, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Science University, Nagpur. The high court had sought the list before passing an order in the public interest litigations raising concern over use of the preservative in fish.Presently, the ad hoc limit of naturally occurring formaldehyde has been set by a panel of experts constituted by the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).Justice R M Borde, while hearing five petitions on the formaldehyde in fish matter, stated that until the panel of experts arrives at the permissible limits, the ad hoc limit of four milligrams per kilogram for fresh water origin fish and hundred milligrams per kilogram for brackish or marine origin fish will prevail.The high court said that it will give the panel of experts a time frame within which to submit their report, and thereafter issue directions to the state and central governments to incorporate the limits into the rules.To the petitioner Grenville Dias’ claims that formaldehyde is naturally present in the muscles of fish, Justice Borde said that once the basic standards are set, enforcement agencies will keep a check..