Global body meet to discuss issue of quality standards

The International Organisation of Spice Trade Associations (IOSTA), an organisation setting global quality standards in spices business, will meet in Goa on January 28 to discuss various issues related to food safety and quality standards. The meeting will be held as part of the 9th World Spice Congress.

According to Sushama Sreekantath, chairperson, All India Spices Exporters Forum (AISEF), the meeting would be a follow-up of its last meeting held in Munich in June 2007.

Talking to Business Standard, Sreekantath said that the meeting assumed significance as European Union (EU) had tightened its stand on quality-related issues, especially on the pesticide residue limit. She said EU had decided to implement the standards from 2008.

"The plantation sector in various countries are in a dilemma as EU decided to go for the new set of standards within a short notice. This will badly hit the running crop as the farming process has already started months back. The issue will be discussed in detail at the meeting," she added.

Apart from AISEF, European Spice Association (ESA), Seasoning and Spice Association (SSA) of UK, American Spice Trade Association (ASTA), Spices Board and spice associations of other nations will participate in the meeting.

The Munich meeting had resolved to bring together spices associations around the world to address common issues and seek solutions to ensure the sustainability of the spices industry. The meeting had drawn up a mission statement focusing mainly on issues related to quality standards.

At the Munich meet, IOSTA formed a working group to study the pesticide issue and find out the maximum residue limits (MRL) for different spices.

Currently, each country has their own residue limits, which create a lot of confusion in the global spices trading. Three other groups were Also formed to work out solutions for other quality-related issues.

The IOSTA meeting had identified misbranding as a major issue in the global spice trading. There are incidents of selling products mixing spices of various origins and supplying products of other origins in the label of well-known origins. This practice is high in the trading of black pepper.

In order to check misbranding, the global body suggested finger print technology to prove the origin of the products. A European organisation, Sure Global Fair (SGF), had successfully introduced this technology in fruit trading, and IOSTA has decided to seek their help to avoid misbranding.