Lab certification boon for State food exports

Kota Kinabalu: The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute's (Mardi) chemical analysis lab in Sabah has been certified MS ISO/IEC 17025 after going through a massive RM4.5 million upgrade.The lab is the first under governmental agencies to be classified so in the State.

The accreditation, under the Laboratory Accreditation Scheme of Malaysia (SAMM) named SAMM 647, will be a stepping stone for the food industry in the state to be of export-level, as the food products which are analysed in the lab and labelled for their contents will be internationally recognised.

The 1985 Malaysian Food Regulations also make it compulsory for food product operators to label their products and include the nutritional content to inform the consumers.

The lab, which has been in operation since 2012, had analysed over 500 food products and offers entrepreneurs and business operators a platform to assess their products at half the market price, making the process cost-effective as well.

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Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the Agriculture and Food Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Yahya Hussin said he hoped the facility would further spur the growth of local entrepreneurs to excel outside Sabah.

"We have a lot of talented entrepreneurs in the food industry, however they are limited to producing and marketing their products at local and domestic platforms only.

"With the availability of this facility, we could raise the platforms," he said after officiating the opening of the lab as well as the Mardi Young Agropreneur Seminar at the Eksotika Hall at the Mardi Sabah office here on Tuesday.

"The young entrepreneurs can also apply for assistance for agricultural input worth RM5, 000 from Mardi as well as financial aids through Agrobank and Tekun Nasional," Yahya said, adding that people are getting more health-conscious nowadays and want to make informed choices.

The Young Agropreneur seminar kicked off Mardi Sabah's 20th anniversary celebration, which will be held throughout September.

The highlight of the celebration would be the launching of a hybrid orchid by Sabah Governor on his official birthday celebration on Sept 30.

Yahya also explained, during the speech, that apart from food products, the lab also would analyse agricultural materials such as fertilizers and crops.

"The lab can also be used to determine the amount of fertiliser needed in plantations, reducing wastage," he said.

Mardi director general Dato' Dr Sharif Haron, Director General of Mardi said the lab allowed for comprehensive examination of samples in situ.

"We can do the basic nutritive labelling at the lab. For instance the amount of energy, sugar and fibre of the product," said Dr Sharif.

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"On top of that, we can do for the amount of vitamins and minerals, while the bacteria count for shelf-life can be done in the near future," he said, adding that this would increase the quality of the food products.

He said for basic nutritive labelling, a single analysis may cost up to RM300 outside, and while Sabahans could get it done for half the price at the lab, adding that a sample may take up to 14 days to be analysed.

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