India has rejected consignments of as many as 1,500 imported food products in the last two financial years because they did not meet quality and safety parameters set by the country’s food regulator, two officials said.
The rejected shipments came from different countries or trading blocs, including developed economies with strict food regulatory regimes, one of them said.
Admittedly, several Indian food products have also been rejected by other countries in the recent past.
Recently, spices from India were banned by Singapore and Hong Kong due to suspected presence of ethylene oxide – a carcinogenic pesticide – above the permitted limit.
Also read: Indian spices suffer from too many standards, not too few
Taking cognizance of the issue, India’s top food regulator in May ordered a comprehensive investigation and testing of all spice brands in India.
The above-mentioned official said that the Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has rejected 1,000 imported food items including cheese, almonds, milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages like whisky, dates, apples, coffee, seafood and chocolates in 2022-23.
Another 550 were rejected in 2023-24 for non-compliance with Indian food safety standards, the official said.
Also read: Strict national food safety standards are essential to boost consumer confidence, says government official
mint could not independently verify which food products from which country had been rejected by Indian authorities.
“The Ministry of Commerce has prepared a list of countries with the names of food products that have been rejected for safety reasons, in order to take further measures,” the second official mentioned above said. Both officials requested anonymity.
India imports food from over 100 countries. FSSAI, established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, sets scientific standards for food products and regulates their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
Safety and quality standards apply to both domestic and imported foods.
A Commerce Ministry spokesman said the ministry was aware that food shipments from other countries often failed mandatory testing.
“As a food regulator, FSSAI implements import regulations and associated testing, market surveillance and consequential measures. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is not involved in any import control or implementation of import regulations at ports etc,” the commerce ministry spokesperson said.
No response was provided to questions sent to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health by the time of going to press.
Three-tier system
Any food product, when forwarded to FSSAI for import clearance by the customs authorities, is subjected to a three-tier verification system: document review, visual inspection, sampling and testing.
“In order to regulate imported food products for their safety and quality, FSSAI has notified the authorised agents at various entry points, through which import of food products is permitted by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT),” the FSSAI spokesperson said.
“If a sample is found to be compliant with FSSAI standards, then a No Objection Certificate (NOC) is issued for import of any food item for human consumption into the country. If the sample is found to be non-compliant, then a Non-Compliance Report (NCR) is issued by FSSAI and in such cases, the food is not allowed to enter the Indian market,” the spokesperson said.
Similarly, a food recall may be ordered by authorities or initiated by food business operators (FBOs), including importers, if there are reasons to believe that a food product they have imported or distributed does not comply with the Act or the rules and regulations made thereunder.
For import of food products, FSSAI has its own Risk Management System (RMS) based on parameters like importer profile, products being imported, country of origin, manufacturer’s compliance history etc. The RMS is integrated with the Customs Single Window Interface for Trade Facilitation (SWIFT).
Challenges facing the food regulator
“All food imported into India has to meet Indian standards. Sometimes, there were issues related to the food standards of the exporting country not matching our standards. So, there was a mismatch between these standards. Secondly, food passes through more than 100 ports of entry and all ports have to ensure the safety of imported food. So, food samples are taken for testing. However, testing facilities are not available at all ports and the samples are sent to the accredited laboratory. Therefore, we restricted the import of food products to a certain number of ports so that food testing can be done more efficiently. The third challenge was that the testing protocol was not robust enough,” said Pawan Agarwal, CEO of Food Future Foundation and former food regulator of India.
He added that the issue of traceability is another challenge to ensure that only safe food reaches India.
The food regulator also closely monitors international food alerts.
“We largely import apples, pulses, edible oil, high-risk foods, fresh foods like seafood, meat etc, which tend to spoil due to microbial contamination and poor temperature control,” Aggarwal said.
Gireesh Chandra Prasad contributed to this article.
