Hong Kong, Singapore's ban on Indian spices raises concerns at home
NEW DELHI: After Hong Kong and Singapore banned four products of two popular Indian spices brands after detecting carcinogenic ingredients, most Indians are concerned about their safety, the latest survey has found.
The survey also found that people have low confidence in Indian food regulators in ensuring food safety.
Both Hong Kong and Singapore banned four products of MDH and Everest species, citing the presence of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing agent which raises the risk of breast cancer and lymphoma.
After these two countries banned these products, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) told this paper that they are probing the matter.
According to the survey conducted by LocalCircles, India’s leading community social media platform, as many as 72 per cent consumers who had been consuming packaged spices of these two brands for a long time said they were concerned after carcinogenic ingredients were found in them.
Of the 12,361 people located in 293 districts, who were surveyed, 62 percent stated that they have been consuming the spices of these brands.
Only 10 per cent said they were not consuming species of these brands.
About 10 per cent said that they were not consuming spices from these two brands but are concerned as they are using other brands and fear that they might have similar ingredients whose products may not comply with safety norms.
Seventy-two per cent said they have no or low confidence that FSSAI or the state food regulators are doing due diligence in granting a license, its renewal, audit and corrective actions against violators to ensure food safety for the public.
According to Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles, the government – both central and states - need to take note of the public concerns and strengthen standards, their implementation, ethics and governance as contaminated food products can have long-term adverse health impacts on large sections of society which consumes them regularly and lead to a trust breakdown with consumers.
He said feedback from those who are also food business owners indicates how, in many cases, there is rampant corruption that takes place on the ground in areas like securing a food license, audits and cases of violations.
After three MDH products – curry powder (spice blend for Madras curry), mixed masala powder, sambhar masala, and Everest’s Fish Curry Masala were found to have carcinogenic ingredients, FSSAI said these concerned products were checked against the parameters prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulation, 2011 and Food Safety and Standards (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulation, 2011 including additives, pesticide residues and other contaminants etc.
“The compliance of the products is checked through regular surveillance and enforcement sampling. Consequently, if samples are found non-compliant then legal proceedings and penalization are followed as per the FSS Act, Rules and Regulations,” an official told this paper.