On June 29, the food safety department put a ban on imports of ice packed fish traded from other states. There were complaints regarding the presence of formalin in these fish products. This ban was imposed after the department found the presence of formalin in few samples of the ice-packed fish.
On Thursday, All Manipur Fish and Egg Traders Association (AMFETA) has raised a doubt over the existence of formalin in fish and asked the authenticity of the report of the samples taken by the food safety department in Manipur.
A. Sashikumar who is the Joint Secretary of AMFETA has urged for clarification on how six samples are found to be formalin positive out of 17 samples taken on July 2.
He mentioned that these samples were taken on July 2, however, the ban was already been imposed on June 29. He said a sample has been taken last year on May 30 and till date; no result was shared regarding that sample.
Sashikumar further added that the chief commissioner of land administration and special chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh, Anil Chandra Punetha, rejected all the allegations of using formalin as a preservative for long shelf life. In Andhra Pradesh, the department of fisheries and Institute of Preventive Medicine, public health lab and food health administration (IPM), the government of Andhra Pradesh jointly conducted raids and tested for formalin. But, no cases are reported.
Sashikumar said that here, it is absolutely important to understand the relevance of this report with the latest ban exercise because five fish companies of Andra Pradesh supply fish to Manipur market. In their state, no case of formalin usage was noticed and when the truck comes inside Manipur, it got banned for a similar allegation of formalin usage.
Traders were also worried about the possible loss because of this imposed ban.

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