The National Laboratory (NasLab) said it had the capacity to carry out testing on food imports, but lacked a legal basis to do so, according to the General Director of the National Hospital of Guido Valadares (NHGV), Jose Antonio.
He said that it was necessary to conduct testing on imported items such as canned fruits, drinks and meats as some food products were contaminated by chemicals which could be harmful to people’s health.
“The National Laboratory is able to do testing on food imports, but has not done so yet as we do not have any policies to do testing at the markets,” said Antonio in Dili.
He said the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Environment (MKIA) should work with the Ministry of Health to create a policy that would allow the laboratory team to perform routine testing.
He said so far the National Laboratory only carried out testing when a poisoning occurred in order to determine the cause.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of NGO HIAM Health Rosaria Martins da Cruz said she was concerned that many food labels were in different languages that could not be understood by local people.
She called on Timorese to boost local food production to help reduce the country’s reliance on imports and minimize health risks.
“The local food will not harm people’s health because they are organic products without chemical contamination,” she said.
She said nowadays many Timorese died young due to chronic diseases caused by unhealthy food.
