Shillong: Meghalaya food safety inspectors flagged 116 samples as unsafe or substandard over the last three financial years. The state government confirmed these findings in the Assembly after conducting 3,756 total inspections across the region. Testing intensity grew quickly. Officials carried out 788 inspections in 2023-24, 1,143 in 2024-25, and 1,825 in 2025-26.
Labs processed 2,844 regulatory samples, which yielded 22 substandard and seven unsafe items. Surveillance testing caught more violations. Out of 5,741 surveillance samples, testers found 94 substandard and 19 unsafe products. Inspectors analyzed 3,329 fish samples throughout this window. In 2023-24, 30 fish samples contained formalin, a toxic preservative. The government responded with a 15-day ban on importing, storing, and selling fresh fish starting June 8, 2023.
Not all categories failed. All 80 milk and dairy products passed tests. Confectionery items, meat, and eggs showed no issues across 151 total samples. Further, 141 samples of rice, pulses, and wheat met safety requirements. Logistics hampered other tests. The government stated that, "the remaining 26 samples decomposed during transit and were unfit for laboratory examination." This failure affected a batch of 36 fruit and vegetable samples where only 10 survived the trip to the lab.
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