The US FDA has in the past one year rejected more than 2100 batches of "made in India" products across food, personal care, medicines and health supplement categories, including those made by leading companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Britannia, Nestle India, Haldiram, Heinz India. The reasons for rejection vary from minor labelling issues to products manufactured in unhygienic conditions to pesticides being above permissible limits, according to data put out by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on its website. Most Indian companies say the items that have been rejected were shipped by unauthorized third-party importers.
The companies say the items were made in plants that are not supposed to manufacture for the US market, and that in some cases they were even unaware that these batches have been denied entry.
Food safety has become a hot button issue in India after the Indian authorities ordered recall of the popular Maggi noodles for containing lead above permissible limits.
The Indian food regulator is inspecting all noodles and pasta brands in the country and the government has declared that it will accord the same priority to tackling food adulteration as it does to eliminating corruption.
The US FDA, too, has begun testing of samples of Maggi noodles manufactured in India and sourced by retailers in America from third-party importers following the huge controversy that erupted here. In January, it had rejected instant noodles manufactured in Nestle's Moga factory since the packaging label didn't outline all ingredients.
Just last month, the US FDA rejected 53 Haldiram-made consignments due to presence of pesticide in fried snacks, potato snacks and sweets, claiming they were either not adequately processed or manufactured, or packaged in insanitary conditions.
Food safety has become a hot button issue in India after the Indian authorities ordered recall of the popular Maggi noodles for containing lead above permissible limits.
The Indian food regulator is inspecting all noodles and pasta brands in the country and the government has declared that it will accord the same priority to tackling food adulteration as it does to eliminating corruption.
The US FDA, too, has begun testing of samples of Maggi noodles manufactured in India and sourced by retailers in America from third-party importers following the huge controversy that erupted here. In January, it had rejected instant noodles manufactured in Nestle's Moga factory since the packaging label didn't outline all ingredients.
Just last month, the US FDA rejected 53 Haldiram-made consignments due to presence of pesticide in fried snacks, potato snacks and sweets, claiming they were either not adequately processed or manufactured, or packaged in insanitary conditions.
Similarly, in March batches of analgesic drugs produced in Karntaka, were seized at US borders due to presence of carcinogenic solvents.
"Instances of product rejections could be either due to improper storage and distribution done by unauthorized exporters. In case our official export products are rejected, we always re-test them at FDA-approved labs," said AK Tyagi, director at Haldiram Manufacturing Ltd. Tyagi added that the US FDA regularly inspected its facilities in India and its products conform to global safety norms.
RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, the maker of Amul dairy products, said while quality standards of Indian packaged food products were based on global norms, rejection of batches was an important issue which needed to be addressed.
Several companies argue that the bulk of products were shipped without their knowledge by third-party traders. Britannia, for instance, said it exports to the US only out of USFDA-registered factories in India and meets all product and labelling standards. The products that were rejected by the USFDA were not shipped directly by the company. Similarly, both Hindustan Unilever and Nestle India said the products that were banned were not exported by them.
A Nestle spokesman said the company had checked the FDA site and some of the batches are described as coming from factories that do not produce products for export to the US. "This means that the batches were so called 'grey market' exports - exports which were not organized or controlled by the company but by other individuals or entities. This explains why the batches were rejected," he said At times, companies are not even aware that their products have been rejected. "As a responsible company, we will always cooperate with any query should it come in," said a Mondelez India spokesperson.
In April this year, Mondelez India's batch containing chocolate candy bar with nuts and fruits was rejected since "the article appears to have been manufactured, processed, or packed under insanitary conditions", said a statement on the FDA website.
In April this year, Mondelez India's batch containing chocolate candy bar with nuts and fruits was rejected since "the article appears to have been manufactured, processed, or packed under insanitary conditions", said a statement on the FDA website.
Source: US FDA
Economic Times
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