Food exported to US exposes hazards

Indian food products, most of which are widely consumed in the country, are increasingly getting rejected in the US.

According to the monthly refusal list issued by the Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS), of the US FDA (Food & Drug Administration), in January, Indian exports were subject to third highest number of refusal actions, with 115 cases.

In February, India topped list with 100 refusals. In March, India faced second highest number of refusal actions with 149 cases.

The list shows, "Britannia Industries Limited" was subject to refusal action 19 times in January for different products, seven times in February and once in March.

Some of the known brands of the company got rejected on the grounds of being adulterated and misbranded.

Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd, Nestle India Ltd, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages and Haldiram Exports (Pvt) Limited were some of the other known companies whose name featured in the US FDA refusal list for the last three months.

Items of pharmaceutical companies like Novartis India, Astral Pharma, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd and The Himalaya Drug Company got rejected on the grounds of being "unapproved".

Even firms approved by the Export Inspection Council (EIC) of India came under the US FDA scanner.

For example, Bafna Enterprises from Kochi, is an unit approved by the Export Inspection Council, for "black pepper" exports.

However, the article called "pepper, black, ground, cracked (spice)" exported under the name if Bafna Enterprises was in the February refusal list of the USFDA on the grounds of having "filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance".

The same products got rejected in January also.

S K Saxena, joint director, EIA (export inspection agency)-Kolkata, said, "The relevance of compulsory licensing of food product exports from India has increased over the years, and most refusals are for EIC unapproved firms."

Ironically, many companies whose name is there in the list are unaware of the refusals taking place.

For example, Hindustan Coca-Cola does not export the brand "Fanta" to the US.

However, the exported product was rejected by USFDA in January due to misbranding.

"Hindustan Coca-Cola does not export the brand "Fanta" to the USA. We however are aware of some instances of local traders trying to send consignments of various products to the USA and this includes some soft drink bottles as well," said an official release from Coca-Cola.

Similarly, an official press release from the Britannia said, "We have not received any communication regarding the alleged refusal actions by US FDA. All ingredients and colours used in our products are legally acceptable for use and extremely safe for consumption as recognised by the food laws."

Trade experts here said often exports were made by individual traders at a personal level, without any involvement of the company whose products were being exported.

Also, more than quality, improper labelling and misbranding led to rejection in several cases.

"Many companies do not know that the information is available to the public directly on the FDA website. Some detentions are certainly quality related, while others result from failing to do necessary registrations, or failure to properly label the products," David Lennarz, vice president FDA Registrar Corp, a US-based private compliance service provider for exports to the US.

"India has increased exports to the US over the past several years, and therefore the number of detentions have increased as well. But there are no special requirements that India must meet compared to other countries," he added.

Vijay Saranda, director, Achievers Resource Ltd, a consultant on food item exports, said, "It is irrelevant who exports a product. For example, if a certain product exported by a snacks company gets refused on the grounds of having Salmonella, which is a pathogenic substance, Indian customers are at risk of consuming a substance harmful to health."

According to Amit Sachdev, representative of the US Grains Council, sometimes the refusals are the result of co-mingling of products for domestic market and international market.

This clearly exposed the need for uniform food safety laws for the local and international markets, he said.