CommGrade to expand; to certify marine, farm produce

CommGrade, a leading testing and certification facility of National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCMSL), for agri and food products, is set for a major expansion and will shortly take up certification of marine food, fresh fruits and vegetables, a top company official said.        

"We have major plans to expand in terms of increasing the number of laboratories to 15 and sample collection centres to 30-40 by the end of this financial year," NCMSL (Testing and Certification) Head Ganesh Ramamurthi said.        

"We are also expecting permission from the Export Inspection Council to start marine food testing soon which would enable the certification of marine products for exports and domestic consumption besides undertaking the certification of fruits and vegetables," he said.        

CommGrade, which currently operates nine laboratories serving most of the commodity specific trading locations and 15 sample collection centres across the country, will also double its lab-based employees strength (Quality Analysts and Quality Controllers) from the 70 at present, Ramamurthi said.        

The laboratory set up in 2005 by leading public sector banks, cooperatives, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) among others, last year tested one lakh samples of agri commodities including cereals, pulses, oil and fats, finished food, and also recently cleared the proficiency tests of Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme conducted by an international Proficiency Testing Agency of the UK Government, he said.    

"CommGrade has emerged as India's largest in terms of the number of tests conducted in a year for the agri-products and food-related sector," Ramamurthi said adding that NCMSL CommGrade is the largest testing services provider to the NCDEX.       

CommGrade offers a spectrum of testing services to test commodities from farm to fork. Apart from testing raw agricultural products for their physical, chemical and biological characteristics, CommGrade has developed capability to test pesticide residues, veterinary drug residues (antibiotics), toxic heavy metals, toxins, food colours, dyes and other food contaminants, he said.