Nepal's Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) is to launch a program to monitor pesticide residue in food items in the country, The Himalayan Times reported on Saturday.
According to the daily, the program includes the development of techniques to monitor the use of pesticide while producing the food items for export and monitoring production mechanism on the spot.
"The program is launched keeping in mind of various cases of refusal of Nepali food items in the international market," said Jiwan Prava Lama, deputy director-general of the DFTQC.
"The European Union rejected exported Nepali tea and honey recently, stating that it had high pesticide residue," said Nava Raj Dahal, a food researcher at the DFTQC.
The program will help understand the production mechanism of food products to be exported, he said.
Dahal said, "As a member of the World Trade Organization, we have some obligations to fulfill to compete in the international market. The monitoring program will help harmonize our products with the international standard and lower the risk of rejection."
This year, the DFTQC aims to make farmers aware of the issue of pesticide residue, said Dahal. "Previously, we had focused on making consumers aware of pesticide residue, but the root issue was not addressed," he added.
The problem will never emerge if the farmers consciously use pesticides or substitute it with bio-pesticides, he said.
Source: Xinhua
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