Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday announced that the government will collect and monitor daily wholesale and retail prices of 16 more essential food commodities from August 1 to help it make policy interventions to stabilise rates. The Department of Consumer Affairs has already been monitoring the daily prices of 22 essential food commodities from 550 centres across 34 states/Union Territories. "We are now adding 16 more commodities, taking the total number of food items to 38 whose prices will be monitored on a daily basis," Joshi told reporters here. The 16 food items are bajra (whole), jowar (whole), ragi (whole), suji (wheat), maida (wheat), besan, ghee, butter (pasteurised), brinjal, egg, black pepper, coriander, cummin seed, red chillies, turmeric powder and banana. The Price Monitoring Division (PMD) in the department is responsible for tracking prices of selected essential commodities. The minister also launched an updated 'PMS Mobile App .