Industry
Imported cheese and whisky? They may not have made it past India’s checkposts
Summary
- India has rejected thousands of shipments of imported almonds, dates, cheese, chocolates, coffee, and whisky in recent years because those failed to meet the country's quality and safety parameters.
- The rejected consignments came from even developed economies with tight food regulatory regimes.
Amid headline-grabbing reports of Indian species being rejected overseas because of excess residual pesticide, it turns out that India has also been turning back consignments of food shipments from several countries.
India has rejected consignments of as many as 1,500 imported food products over the previous two financial years because they failed to meet quality and safety parameters laid down by the country’s food regulator, according to two officials.
The rejected consignments came from different countries or trade blocks, including developed economies with tight food regulatory regimes, one of them said.
To be sure, several Indian food items have also been rejected by other countries in the recent past.
Recently, spices from India were banned by Singapore and Hong Kong for alleged presence of ethylene oxide—a cancer-causing pesticide—above the permissible limit.
Also Read: Indian spices products hurt by too many, not too few standards
Taking cognizance the matter, India’s top food regulator, in May ordered a probe and comprehensive testing of all brands of spices in India.
The first official mentioned above said the Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) rejected 1,000 imported food items including cheese, almonds, milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages like whisky, dates, apples, coffee, sea food, and chocolates in 2022-23.
Another 550 were rejected in 2023-24 for not conforming to Indian food safety standards, the official said.
Also Read: Stringent domestic food safety standards essential to boost consumer confidence: Govt official
Mint couldn't independently verify which food items from which country were rejected by Indian authorities.
“The department of commerce has prepared a list of countries with the names of food items that have been rejected on safety parameters to take further steps," said the second official mentioned earlier. Both the officials requested anonymity.
India imports food from more than 100 countries. The FSSAI-established under Food Safety and Standards, 2006, lays down science-based standards for food products and regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
The standards for both safety and quality are equally applicable for domestic and imported food.
A spokesperson for the commerce ministry said the ministry is aware that food consignments from other countries do fail mandatory testing many a times.
"FSSAI as the food regulator, implements the import regulations and associated testing, market surveillance and consequential measures. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is not involved in any import check or implementation of import regulations at the ports etc," said the commerce ministry spokesperson.
There was no response to queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson till press time.
Three-tier system
Any food item, when referred to FSSAI for import clearance by the Customs Authorities, is subject to a three-tier system of verification – scrutiny of documents, visual inspection, and sampling and testing.
"In order to regulate the imported food items for their safety and quality, FSSAI has notified Authorized Officers for various Points of Entry, through which Import of food item is allowed by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)," said FSSAI spokesperson.
“If a sample is found conforming to FSSAI standards, then No Objection Certificate (NOC) is issued for import of any article of food for human consumption in the country. If sample is found not conforming, then Non-Conforming Report (NCR) is issued by FSSAI and in such cases Food is not allowed to enter the Indian market," the spokesperson said.
Similarly, a food recall may be ordered by authorities or self-initiated by Food Business Operators (FBOs), including importers, if there is reason to believe that a food product they have imported or distributed is not in compliance with the Act, or the rules and regulations made thereunder.
For import of food items, FSSAI has its own Risk Management System (RMS) based on parameters like importer’s profile, imported products, country of origin, manufacturer’s history of compliance etc. The RMS is integrated with the Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT).
Challenges faced by the food regulator
“All food that is imported to India have to follow Indian standards. Sometimes, there were challenges that the food standards of the exporting country may not match with our standards. So, there used to be a mismatch of those standards. Secondly, food comes through more than 100 ports of entry and all ports must ensure imported food is safe. So, food samples are collected for testing. However, testing facilities are not available at all the ports and samples are sent to the accredited laboratory. Therefore, we restricted the import of food items to a certain number of ports so that food testing can be done more effectively. The third challenge was testing protocol was not robust enough," Pawan Agarwal, CEO of Food Future Foundation and India’s ex-food regulator.
He added the issue of traceability is another issue to make sure that only safe food is coming to India.
The food regulator also keeps a close watch on international food alerts.
"We largely import apples, pulses, edible oil, high-risk food, fresh foods such as sea food, meat etc. which have a propensity to get spoilt due to microbial contamination and poor temperature control," Aggarwal said.
Gireesh Chandra Prasad contributed to this story.
