Mineral oil issue: 600 tonnes of pepper released

Release occurs after a Kolkata-based food testing laboratory okayed 1,500 tonnes of total stock

Six-hundred tonnes of black pepper stock, part of the 6,400 tonnes seized in December 2012 following complaints of mineral oil coating, have been released in the open market. Sources said a Kolkata-based food testing laboratory had okayed 1,500 tonnes of the total stock.

Another 1,000 tonnes will be released in the local market. Exporters told Business Standard that stocks which were cleared by the laboratory would be sold only in the domestic market, as the quality of the commodity deteriorated, as it was stored in warehouses for a long time.

Dealers from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have bought the stock which was released. Those would now be sold in the retail markets in Mumbai and Delhi at Rs 640-660 a kg. In August 2014, the Kerala High Court had directed the Food Safety Commissioner to allow National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) to clean the pepper stock and to sent it to a laboratory notified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

When the stock was seized by the FSSAI three years ago, the stock was meeting with quality norms for trading on NCDEX. However, after seizure by the FSSAI, the stock could not be delivered.

The petitioner, Suresh Nair, vice-president of NCDEX , submitted that even if the allegation was true, the mineral oil content could be removed by a process of steaming. Mumbai-based Kalimirchi Vyapari Association also moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking urgent justice as the traders’ money of Rs 300 crore was stuck.

The FSSAI sealed six NCDEX-accredited warehouses in Alappuzha and Kochi in December 2012. When the samples were tested in Kerala, 60-65 per cent of the lots were found to contain traces of mineral oil.