FSSAI to carry out pan-India inspection of food products

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 29

Amid the controversy involving Indian spices’ firms in the US and other countries, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday announced that it had planned to carry out pan-India surveillance on spice and culinary herbs in 2024-25.

Row over indian spices

• In the last six months, the United States has refused 31% of spice-related shipments from MDH Pvt Ltd over salmonella contamination.
• Singapore and Hong Kong banned sales of certain MDH and Everest products over “detection of a carcinogenic pesticide”.
• According to the FSSAI, it has formed 21 scientific panels which comprise subject experts from universities and research institutes to keep an eye on spice and culinary herbs.

Sugar content in Cerelac below prescribed levels: Nestle

• Nestle India Chairman and MD Suresh Narayanan has said the firm’s food formulation for kids below 18 months is done on a global basis and the allegation that “it is racially stereotyped is untrue”.
• Nestle India’s added sugar content in Cerelac is lower than the upper limit prescribed by the FSSAI, he says, adding that sugar in infant food is determined by the capability to meet the nutrition profile of a particular age group.

Fruit and vegetables, salmonella in fish products, fortified rice and milk products are the other items to be under surveillance. The number of samples analysed during the past few years have grown substantially, from 1,07,829 in 2020-21 to more than 4,51,000 in 2023-24, registering an increase of more than three times, the FSSAI stated.

The United States customs authorities refused 31% of all spice-related shipments exported by MDH Pvt Ltd over salmonella contamination in the last six months. Recently, Singapore and Hong Kong suspended sales of certain MDH and Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd products after the alleged detection of a carcinogenic pesticide in spice mixes.

“The FSSAI has constituted 21 scientific panels which comprise subject experts from universities, research institutes and other reputed government organisations, like CSIR, ICAR, ICMR, IITR, NIFTEM, IIT, CFTRI, etc. Of 1,07,829 samples analysed in 2020-21, 28,347 did not conform to FSSAI standards. Likewise, in 2021-22, 32,934 samples out of 1,44,345 and in 2022-23 44,626 samples of 1,77,511 samples did not conform to the FSSAI standards,” the agency stated.

Meanwhile, the FSSAI is going to collect and test baby formula products of Nestle India and other manufacturers. Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organisation, and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) had recently alleged that Nestle added sugar in its infant formula Cerelac in India.

At the same time, Nestle India’s Chairman and MD Suresh Narayanan asserted that the company’s infant food formulation for children below 18 months is done on a global basis and the allegation that “it is racially stereotyped is unfortunate” and untrue. He said the amount of sugar content in infant foods is determined by the capability to meet the nutrition profile of a particular age group and that is universal.

Nestle India’s added sugar content in Cerelac is much lower than the upper limit prescribed by FSSAI, he said, adding that there is nothing in this product that makes it a product that is potentially of any risk or any kind of harm to the child.

(With PTI inputs)

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