A food lab launched in Dubai on Monday will test for pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, the municipality has announced. The food testing lab of the Dubai Central Laboratory (DCL) has been set up at the Fruits and Vegetables Market in Al Warsan.
Electronic tests are conducted on fresh vegetables and fruits, milk, grains of all kinds, honey, spices and rice.
As he inaugurated the facility, Dawoud Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said the lab ensures food safety. “We are always striving to develop our services to keep pace with recent scientific developments in the fields of testing in general, and testing of food products in particular. This is done to ensure that they are free from any contaminants or materials that violate the UAE and international standards for food products,” said Al Hajri.
The lab has the “latest technologies and advanced specialised devices” to test residues of insecticides. The municipality called the lab the “first-of-its-kind” that provides services to food suppliers in Dubai and “enhances consumer confidence in the products available in the market”.
How does Italy position itself in terms of food safety monitoring?
Italy is among the countries that carries out the highest number of tests on pesticide residues in food and ranks among those with the lowest proportion of illegal samples. This was supported by the annual report on pesticide residues in Europe published by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). Italy is the second country for the number of samples analyzed after Germany, but has only 2.5% of the samples that exceed the legal limits, below 4.1% of the EU.
These data highlight how buying Italian food products is not only often and willingly qualitatively more satisfactory but also much safer.