Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Spices & Condiments EC team to assess contamination control measures in spices units G.K.Nair
Kochi , Dec. 16 A DELEGATION from the European Commission will visit Kerala on a mission to study the control system in place in the spices processing industry. This is mainly to see the steps taken to stop contamination of chilli powder and other spices. The delegation, which would be arriving in Kochi in the second half of February , will check the controlling measures the Government and the industry have put in place to ensure that consignments meant for EU countries meet the quality requirements. "They want to assess the control system in place for Sudan Red 1 in chillies and aflatoxin contamination in spices ", Mr S. Kannan, Director, Marketing, Spices Board told Business Line on Tuesday. The Board would be holding a meeting with the industry representatives in this connection on Thursday to discuss various issues.He said the European Union had mandated that each consignment of hot chilli and chilli products imported into EU must accompany an analytical report demonstrating that the chilli products do not contain Sudan-1. Besides, the European Spice Trade Association has subsequently asked the Spices Board to indicate to them as to what steps were being taken to ensure a higher degree of reliability and safety to spice products exported from India. He said in order to curb export of contaminated chilli powder from the country, the Spices Board has directed exporters to provide details of their export consignment and samples to the Board or any of its office for laboratory testing and clearance. Given this situation, all exporters intending to export chilli powder or any other spice product containing chilli, excluding chilli oil and oleoresin, to any destination, should notify the Board's nearest office in the prescribed format giving all details, at least 48 hours before shipment, and assist the Board to draw samples from the export consignment, he said. Besides, samples from export consignments of chilli powder and other products containing chillies would also be analysed for presence of aflatoxin also, he said. The authorities in the US and Europe are severe about the presence of aflotoxin in the chillies. The tolerance limit for chillies fixed by the European Union is 10 ppb (parts per billion) while it is 15 ppb in the US, he said. The decision, he said, had been taken following the detection of prohibited carcinogenic dye Sudan-1 in some consignments of chilli power exported from the country few months ago.
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