NEW DELHI: A new report has found that India lacks food safety standards for around 30 spices, including kokum and vanilla, raising concerns over consumer safety and the country's spice exports.
The report, titled Streamlining the Indian Spice Market for Foods: Issues and Way Forward and prepared by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), called for formalising the domestic spice market and strengthening regulatory oversight.
According to the report, India produces around 75 varieties of spices and accounts for nearly 40% of the global spice market. However, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has prescribed standards for only 45 spices, leaving several commonly used spices, including kokum and vanilla, without notified standards.
The report also flagged the absence of a domestic traceability framework for spices and recommended setting up a single nodal agency to regulate the entire supply chain from farm to retail.
It noted that the recommendation comes amid recent export challenges, including Singapore's ban on certain Indian spices last year and the European Union's move to introduce a digital product passport requiring complete traceability. Among Indian spices, cumin has faced the highest rejection rates.
While India accounts for over 40% of global spice production, the report said the domestic spice market is growing at a slower pace than the country's GDP, with 60-80% of the market remaining informal.
It also pointed to the absence of a unified regulatory framework, noting that agencies such as the FSSAI and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) prescribe overlapping standards, sometimes resulting in conflicting requirements.
"There is a need for the domestic standards to be aligned with international Codex standards," ICRIER's Dr Arpita Mukherjee said.
The report further highlighted inconsistencies in testing procedures across laboratories operated by different agencies, saying these variations increase compliance costs to between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per sample.
It also identified poor agricultural and post-harvest practices as key contributors to adulteration and contamination, including excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers and inadequate storage and processing practices.
The report called for uniform enforcement of food safety standards, stronger laboratory infrastructure, improved quality control in the informal spice sector and greater support for smallholder farmers.