Following reports of Singapore and Hong Kong imposing bans on spice imports from Indian brands MDH and Everest, India, renowned as the world’s largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices, has initiated steps to address the matter.

India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has sought detailed replies regarding the issue from its embassies in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as from the Singapore Food Agency and the Centre for Food Safety and Hong Kong’s Food & Environmental Hygiene Department.

Government sources indicate that India has sought technical details, analytical reports, and information on the exporters whose shipments have faced rejection. The banned products are allegedly found to contain pesticide ‘ethylene oxide’ beyond permissible limits.

Also read: Spice brands MDH and Everest Group under scrutiny: What is ethylene oxide and how harmful is it?

In addition to seeking details from the companies mentioned in media reports, India aims to ascertain the underlying causes of rejection and initiate necessary corrective actions in collaboration with the concerned exporters.

Ashwin Bhadri, Founder & CEO of Equinox Labs emphasised that while there are regulations in place for pesticide usage, enforcement of these regulations is a challenge. Bhadri stated, “When you look at pesticide contamination today, while there are a lot of laws and regulations in place, who is going and monitoring how much pesticide is being added at the farm level? There is no monitoring of that. Now you have to understand the farmer’s perspective- he has an X amount of land, he has to get the maximum out of it, he is going to look at what is my cost of pesticide to my cost of yield and he’s going to do the best he can. There is no possible way for us to go through every single farm every time pesticide is being sprayed. So the only way possible is, whatever is coming from farm to fork- in between when raw materials are being bought we need to do pesticide level checks then. What many brands do is they skimp on that cost, they will not get it tested, they say the process will take care of it, but the process doesn’t take care of it. Removing pesticide from grains is not a very easy process. So unless you take very selected steps, it’s going to be impossible to get that out. So what is put in is what is going to come out. So a brand if they are not taking steps to control the quality chain, if they’re not are taking steps to monitor the vendors that they’re using, where they’re buying the material from, buying organic or not. Now again, if we say organic cost goes up because if you don’t use pesticides the amount of crop per hectare is lesser, hence the cost goes higher. So there are regulations for pesticides, but enforcement of these regulations is a very large challenge.”

Furthermore, an industry consultation is planned to address the issue of mandatory testing of ETO (Ethylene Oxide) in spice shipments destined for Singapore and Hong Kong.

While the Food Safety Regulator of Hong Kong advises consumers against purchasing these products and urges traders not to sell them, the Singapore Food Agency has mandated a recall of the affected items.