Prof. Puangrat Kajitvichyanukul, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University recently revealed that her collaboration with Thai enterprises, with financial support from NSTDA Innovation and Technology Assistance Program (ITAP), led to the launch of two products to support safe food initiative.
CHEMISPOT is a simple and rapid pesticide test kit to screen for the presence of pesticide residues in fruit and vegetable. CHEMISPOT paraquat test is in a gel form. The white gel turns blue if paraquat is present in the test liquid. CHEMISPOT glyphosate test is in a white liquid form which turns yellow, if glyphosate is present in the test liquid. The development of CHEMISPOT was initiated by Earth Care Innosys Company Limited. The product has been tested and used by multiple food establishments and hotels – key players in Thai tourism industry - and supported the food safety campaign of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
Chiwadi Fruit Veggie Wash is a plant-based vegetable wash. It is made with coconut flower nectar that has natural antibacterial property and removes pesticide residues. Laboratory results have shown that Chiwadi Fruit Veggie Wash is effective against microbes and reduces the amount of two pesticides - methomyl and lambda-cyhalothrin – to the safe level. Chiwadi Products Company Limited acknowledged the technical assistance provided by Prof. Puangrat in improving the product efficacy and product testing to ensure that its quality meeting regulatory standards.