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Expected to make Indian foods with no standards since the 19th and 20th century to move to the 21st century practically overnight, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) often finds itself in a place of enormous Authority and embarrassment like in the case of Nestle where it suddenly discovered after decades of their existence in India that the lead content of their 2-minute noodles made them unfit for human consumption. With the proverbial cane handed to them by law they banned the sale of Maggie noodles, forcing their withdrawal from the market and followed suit with practically all the other noodles, threatening to shut down the whole industry.
Even though most of the educated consumers like us were already aware of the high MSG content in these noodles and avoided eating them frequently, their growth of consumption was unbridled, thanks to the massive promotional endorsements by celebrities like Amitabh Bacchan. This was equalled by the fizzy drinks known for their harmful side effects and the junk food industry (not to talk of the street food that has been consumed for centuries). Even as consumerism is on the increase, FSSAI took it upon themselves to set an example by going the whole hog to punish Nestle with the law on their side. (Interestingly Singapore has found the noodles to be safe and according to yesterday’s reports UK has also found the noodles safe; one has not heard the last of the story).
One of the basic gripes of the industry has been the lack of uniform standards and their compatibility with the international norms besides them being vague and giving uncapped discretionary powers to the inspectors at each location. Each inspector, each office and each State has its own interpretation for the same law. To alleviate this problem and remove ambiguities, FSSAI has announced a draft regulation for food products on their website with a time of two months for any objections and suggestions after which they will be standardized. Although a separate draft regulation is proposed to be announced for wine and spirits in a couple of months, the current one has included wine for good measure-but only in so far as the lead content is concerned, since it has been causing a wave of panic and uncertainty in the industry.
Arsenic as a slow poison is not included for wine in this draft proposal though included in other food products and perhaps would be a part of the overall umbrella when the draft regulations are announced. While most wine importers wonder why wine was included in the 18 page document notified in Hindi and English and why only the lead content allowed was mentioned, it could well be because of the nationwide uproar created by the ban on Maggie.
Interestingly delWine had written an Article Honey, There is Arsenic in Your Wine describing a court action sought by some consumers in the USA. Hopefully, the issue will be addressed in the draft regulations as it has been for the food draft regulations. But with the importers and foreign suppliers still reeling under the ambivalent approach taken by the regulator so far, resulting in heavy loss to several small businesses some of which had to close down, and incomprehensible rejection of several consignments causing imports to drop despite higher demand, the new regulations will inevitably involve changing of labels and bring the producers back to square one. However, the stakeholders now have to accept the fact that they have to face the arbitrariness of the decisions made by the government and the optimists will hope that this will be the last step.
No one including delWine is averse to any law that assures the product to be healthy and having inbuilt standards of safety. There will always be people trying to bypass the authorities in their endeavour for greed. It’s this breed that the watchdog has to worry about-not the wine producers and importers most of whom are there to provide a service out of passion and to make a reasonable return on their investments.
Hopefully, the procedures will be streamlined after the round of draft regulations is over and the suggestions and objections by the producers and importers are taken into account to smoothen and rationalise the whole procedure without compromising on the safety and the health issues of over 1.25 billion Indians and the expats living here in increasing numbers.
Subhash Arora
Draft Regulations (English) Draft Regulations (Hindi) |