Spice dust-up: Don’t let it cloud ‘Make in India’
Our food safety regulator must extricate us from a dust-up over packaged masala mixes. For India to be the world’s next factory, we can’t let a reputation for lax quality standards set in
Recognizing a dish by its smell is a talent many of us pride ourselves in, the wafts of its aroma rich with spices India has been famous for globally ever since trade began across the high seas. In olden days, spices enabled seafaring by preserving food. In today’s times, the masala blends that conspire to tickle our taste buds still evoke ‘India’ around the world. The association is strong. It’s just that home-made spice mixes take drudgery, the sort middle-class kitchens got liberated from many decades ago. Among other staples within handy reach of the cooktop, one can find shelves full of packaged masala powder, typically. The most popular brands are household names. Two of the best known, MDH and Everest, made news this week for action taken against some of their products by food regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore for unsafe content. Specifically, tests allegedly found the presence of ethylene oxide, a pesticide, at levels above the safety limit. This should make us sit up—not just because these mixes are used heavily in Indian cooking, but also for the risk to India’s global image as an assurer of quality. Not long ago, we had a big scandal over cough syrup that claimed the lives of 141 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon, after which our drug regulator banned some infant formulations. Earlier, Nestle’s Maggi noodles had to be pulled off shelves over safety concerns. Such instances suggest laxity on the part of companies and regulators alike.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has taken samples from all spicemix makers, including Everest and MDH, to run its own checks. The ethylene oxide reportedly found in the exported spice blends has been classified as a carcinogen by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer. To grasp how it gets into our food chain, we must trace it back to its roots, almost literally. Farmers of spice crops use various chemicals to fend off insects and other pests, while the packaging process often involves fumigants and preservatives. Although what’s sold is supposed to be safe, residues can linger and cause harm if used in bio-sensitive quantities. As residual substances act as a pretext in some Western markets for non-tariff barriers, bans placed on Indian exports are sometimes viewed as cynical ploys to keep our stuff out. In 2014, the EU briefly banned import of Alphonso mangoes and four vegetables from India. The same year, Saudi Arabia barred Indian chilli on charges of high pesticide residue. However, before fingers can be pointed, it is our job to ensure the quality of our produce. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety had issued a ban on three MDH mixes and one Everest mix on 5 April. Three days later, the FSSAI actually raised the maximum residue limits of pesticides in spices and culinary herbs by an order that some scientists have protested as scandalous. It was only this Monday, though, that word got around of foreign bans, memes began to swirl on social media and our regulator took note.
That it took an overseas whiff of scandal for safety checks to be ordered by our regulator should serve as food for thought. As India strives to become the world’s next big factory as part of a ‘China plus one’ outreach to global investors, we must not let local manufacturers expose us to reputational risks. Globally, we have long battled a lousy reputation for quality control in many fields. We can’t afford laxity anymore. Spice mixes are so quintessentially desi, they serve as flagships of what we make.