The Punjab government has decided to place all 23 testing laboratories of the food, agriculture and health departments under the unified management of the newly created Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drugs Authority (PAFDA). Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Director General of PAFDA, told Wealth Pakistan that in the first phase all existing laboratories of the allied departments would be taken over and upgraded according to international benchmarks, with efforts also underway to secure accreditation from national and global standard-setting organisations.

He said the authority would also establish a central testing laboratory equipped with advanced facilities to cater to multiple economic sectors at the same time. He expressed optimism that the authority's entire testing and regulatory functions would become fully operational by early next year. He said the long-term vision is for PAFDA to evolve into an internationally recognised conformance and compliance body by 2035 in areas including food, pharmaceuticals, agricultural inputs, feed and cosmetics.

He said this transformation is expected to support Pakistan's export growth, cut foreign testing costs and strengthen public health. Dr Pasha noted that the authority's planned functions would also contribute to safer consumer products, reduced foreign exchange losses, faster export procedures through internationally accepted certifications and a stronger applied research environment for both academia and industry. He pointed out that Pakistan continues to face significant difficulties in ensuring safe food, effective medicines and compliant agricultural inputs.

Citing food quality concerns, he said that unsafe and adulterated food alone has major consequences for public health, including malnutrition, and results in an annual economic burden of US$7.6 billion. Explaining PAFDA's responsibilities, Dr Pasha said the authority's mandate covers testing and conformance certification in areas such as agri-inputs, food, soil, feed, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biologics, medical devices and genomics.

This includes plant and animal genomics, nutrigenomics, pharmacogenetics and nutrigenetics. He stated that the authority is being designed with reference to leading regional and global institutions, including the Dubai Municipality Laboratory, China's CNAS and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)