In a bid to determine the quality of the fish on the spot, the Assam food safety department has placed an order for the supply of two variants of rapid detection kits. A source in the department said that the machines ordered are manufactured by a German multinational pharmaceutical company. The kits will help assess and ascertain if the fish sold in the markets are contaminated with chemicals such as ammonia and formalin. The two variants of the kits will exactly ascertain the contamination of fish and its extent can be ascertained on the spot. Generally, the test conducted on samples in a laboratory is elaborate and time consuming, a senior official of the Assam food safety department said. While formalin-laced fish comes from outside, unscrupulous traders apply ammonia on their stock to slow down the melting of ice used to preserve the fish which take time to reach the markets from the sources. The rapid detection kits will come in two variants. One of them will be capable of ascertaining the presence of higher doses of chemicals. The kits will take about 15 days to arrive here, we have been told telephonically, the official said. While Nagaland had already been using the kits, along with Assam, the food safety departments in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh have also placed orders for such kits. This becomes necessary as not only fish, but chemical-laced food items have made foray into the city in different other items. Huge quantities of chemical-laced mangoes and bananas have been seized from different parts of the city over the past few weeks while milk and edible oil samples are undergoing tests in the laboratory. However, it is learnt that the detection kits, though fast in operation, are not a foolproof solution to the problem. The laboratory test results take at least 3-4 days to come, but are foolproof.