CHENNAI: The state government has informed the Madras High Court that experts from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras will hold a research to find out the ill-effects of using plastics for packaging food items.

Referring to earlier orders of a special bench of justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy dealing with forest-related cases asking whether the government has conducted any study on the matter, the government made the submission by producing a letter written by the health secretary.

“I am also directed to state that the Commissioner, Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration department has requested the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to coordinate and conduct research activities,” the letter addressed to Additional Advocate General J Ravindran stated.

The court had asked the state whether any study was conducted on the use of plastics for food packaging especially considering the typically hot food such as sambar, tea and other items and whether packaging these food items with plastics could be permitted.