U.S. FDA bans several Indian snacks

June 12, 2015 09:55
U.S. FDA bans several Indian snacks

Compared to the other countries, more snack imports are rejected from India than any other country in the first five months of 2015, data on the website of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed.

More than half of all the snack products that were tested and then blocked from sale in the U.S. this year were from India. Indian products led the world in snack rejects last year as well.

After India, Mexico stood in the second place in terms of rejections in 2015, followed by South Korea. The shocking thing is, China, whose exports to the US are worth ten times as much as India’s, is in the eight place. In fact, it’s not only snack foods, The U.S. FDA  is continuously rejecting all sorts of imports from India, including cosmetics, drugs and  ceramics too.

Why did the Indian snacks fail the U.S. FDA tests?

Various problems in packaging and labeling to alleged contamination. FDA complains that, Indian products contained high levels of pesticides, mold and the bacteria salmonella

In fact, FDA blocked a product from the western state of Gujarat, as it consisted of whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food.

If this is the case with U.S. FDA, India’s national food-safety doesn’t monitor the exports. It has been rushing to test everything from soups to pastas to instant noodles sold domestically in the wake of the Nestlé findings.

After the Food Safety and Standards Authority said that, they found some unsafe and hazardous for human consumption , the sale of Maggi noodles were officially blocked across the country from the last Friday.

“Food-safety is a very sensitive thing in developed countries,” so countries like the U.S. have better food-safety infrastructure, said Yudhvir Singh Malik, the chief executive of the authority.  “A lot of that sense is still to come in developing countries.”

The majority of Indian snacks rejected by the FDA this year were from Haldiram’s, which is a Nagpur-based food company. Sugar candies and salty Indian snack mixes are the products that are blocked from the company.

A.K. Tyagi, a senior-vice president at Haldiram’s, said its food “is 100% safe and complies with the law of the land.” Discrepancies, he said, arise because food-safety standards differ in India and the U.S. “A pesticide that is permitted in India may not be allowed there. And even if it is, they may not allow it in the same concentration as it is here,” he said.

Till date, the U.S. FDA rejected 217 imported baked products, out of which more that half were made in India. Britannia biscuit company is one of the blocked company  

“The reason for this is, the product didn’t list all ingredients and failed provide consumers adequate nutrition information,” FDA report said.

In response, Britannia said that it did not authorize the shipment. “Britannia exports to the U.S. only out of U.S. FDA registered factories in India and meets product/labeling standards,” the company said in an email. “These may be instances of shipments made by independent exporters based out of India.”

By Phani

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Ban  US FDA  Maggi  Britannia  Indian products