ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin, an ISO 9001: 2008 certified organization has been recognized as a National Referral Laboratory for Fish and Fishery Products by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The Gazette Notification No. 861 dated 12 January, 2017 states the Scope of Testing defined under: Physico-chemical analysis, bacteriological tests, detection of viruses, bacterial toxins, antibacterial substances, other microbiological tests, analysis of pesticide residue and heavy metals in fish and fishery products.

This is major achievement for ICAR-CIFT as being referral laboratory in fish and fishery products, it would have a greater role in framing policy issues related to quality and safety of domestically marketed products. ICAR-CIFT is accredited with NABL as per ISO 17025 for testing various safety parameters concerned with food and water. The functions of the referral laboratory would be to analyze samples of fish and fishery products sent by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for surveillance and monitoring of any food safety hazard. The laboratory would undertake investigations for fixing domestic standards for any category of fishery products. In collaboration with laboratories in the various states and reputed institutions, methods of analysis shall be standardized for routine analysis of biological and chemical hazards. This referral laboratory would have a major role in capacity development across the country by organizing professional training, workshops and seminars for the food analysts and laboratory personnel in the states specified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

Founded in 1957, ICAR-CIFT under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has proven its excellence in development of fishing and fish processing technologies. During the last 60 years, ICAR-CIFT has made commendable scientific contributions in the fields of fish harvesting, processing, packaging, product development, quality assurance, fishery byproducts, fishery waste utilisation etc. The Institute is renowned for its high caliber and innovative research activities, trainings, partnerships and entrepreneurship promotion through buisiness incubation. ICAR-CIFT has its headquarters situated at Cochin (Kerala) and Research Centres at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Veraval (Gujarat) and Mumbai (Maharashtra). This Institute has vibrant research environment and is the only national centre in the country where research in all disciplines relating to fishing and fish processing is undertaken.