The proposed `Food contaminants surveillance network' should make geographically relevant assessments -- a sort of regional forecasting system that takes into account socio-ethnic sensitivities and economic interests of local communities.

A high-level meeting held at ICMR on Saturday also focussed on the need for rapid and reliable testing kits based on molecular biology, as well as new treatment protocols for dropsy patients, an ICMR spokesman said.

ICMR Director General N K Ganguly told the meeting that the recent outbreak of dropsy caught the scientists unawares initially, especially on issues related to diagnosis and treatment.

Prof Ganguly suggested setting up of a task force for surveillance within the ICMR for research on edible oils and food contaminants.

Detection of food contaminantsand toxins should not be the responsibility of administrative departments and enforcement agencies alone, but should also be of equal concern to research agencies such as the ICMR, he said.

The meeting, chaired by Prof V Ramalingaswamy of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and former chief of ICMR, said recent dropsy patients need to be followed up for at least six more months to monitor toxin levels in blood, urine and body tissues.

Analysis of clinical data at the meeting showed that in some patients, the toxin was not fully excreted by the body even after four days and was retained in the vital organs.

Another mystery for the experts is that sanguiranine, the main chemical present in argemone oil that was used to adulterate mustard oil, was not observed in lactating mothers and infants fed on it were safe.

Dr S Sriramachari, former additional director general of ICMR, said health experts should systematically collect representative autopsy materials from victims suspected to havedied of mustard oil poisoning.

Experts stressed the need to monitor the amounts of various toxic alkaloids present in edible oils sold in the open market and need for fast, reliable and sensitive tests as the existing techniques were time-consuming and yielded false negative results.

Prof Ganguly said future research should focus on upgradation of detection and packaging technologies and formulate a comprehensive protocol at the earliest.