The first-ever indigenous low-cost pathogen kit, use to check food contamination, is all set to hit the market. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will inaugurate the kits this week. Developed by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, the kit can be used for checking the quality of food products. Pathogen detection kits are usually imported, with their cost being too high. According to officials in the department of health research, the indigenous kits can be a great help to small laboratories. “These kits are cost-effective. They cost almost 50 per cent less than the imported kits, which are available for `20,000-25,000,” said an official. The kits are also easy to use. Unlike the kits available in the market, which take a long time to identify the pathogen, the new kits can identify the pathogen within a few hours and will be less time-consuming. “The pathogen detection kit helps identify several pathogenic organisms. While the conventional method takes days to detect a pathogen, the new technique will help get the results within few hours,” the official said. Officials say that the kits will help identify minute quality of pathogen loads in food products, water, spices and other food items. Officials say that move gains significance as food safety has become more important in the context of globalisation.