Mumbai: German testing and certification company TÜV SÜD has set up a laboratory in India, equipped to meet requirements across sectors, from nutritional products and food supplements to leather and toys to jewellery.
Touted to be the company’s largest testing laboratory across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the lab comes at a time there is greater consumer and regulatory concern on the presence of pesticide residues in food or trace elements in toys, Ishan Palit , Chief Executive of TUV SUD’s product service division told Business Line.
The €1.7 billion company has 10 labs in the country, but the new lab located in Gurgaon will be a hub to service companies in North India, similar to an existing hub in Bangalore for companies in South India. Its other labs are located close to industrial clusters, like Ambur in Tamil Nadu that exports leather products; or labs to certify textile and apparel, located in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
The company, that has been present in India since 1994, will invest € 5 million (about 35 crore) in the new lab and the other satellite labs, he said. The company clocked revenues of € 20 million (Rs 140 crore) in 2011.
An accredited lab for food testing, the company is also notified to certify medical equipment, he said. The new lab is equipped with technology ranging from handling the physical and chemical aspects of testing, he said. So in food or textile, it would be testing products to check their packaging or ability to withstand handling pressures, and these would be handled separately for different products, he explained. The chemical analysis would involve more sensitive and dedicated equipment to check for antibiotic or pesticide residues in food, azo dyes in textile or lead in toys, he added.
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