According to a report released by the European Commission on Friday, since August 2011 a high proportion of consignments of paan leaves imported into the UK from India have tested positive for salmonella which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting.
LONDON: After Alphonso mangoes, paan leaves from India are now under the European Union's scanner.
According to a report released by the European Commission on Friday, since August 2011 a high proportion of consignments of paan leaves imported into the UK from India have tested positive for salmonella. Salmonella causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting.
EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) said "continuous reports notified by UK have led to the setting up of reinforced checks for paan leaves from India".
"An important source of RASFF notifications on pathogens are fruits and vegetables," it said. "The main pathogen referred through RASFF is salmonella. The high reason for salmonella contamination since 2011 is paan leaves."
The latest data showed last year India received the second highest number of RASFF notifications (257) after China (433).
The EU said Europe was more than ever reliant on RASFF to ensure "that our food meets some of the highest food safety standards in the world".
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has earlier issued a warning to consumers about the risk of salmonella food poisoning from paan leaves. The FSA has asked authorities at UK ports and airports to sample and test all consignments of paan leaves presented for import, especially those coming from India and Thailand.
"RASFF is a vital tool to respond to food safety risks in Europe, since information is swiftly exchanged to protect European consumers," said Tonio Borg, the EU commissioner for health. "The horsemeat scandal illustrated the RASFF system in action and food products adulterated with horsemeat were traced back to source and withdrawn from the market."
Europe has already banned the import of India's world-famous Alphonso mangoes. On March 26, the EU's 28 member states endorsed emergency measures proposed by the European Commission to ban the import of certain fruits and vegetables from India. The ban, put in force by EU's Standing Committee on Plant Health, came into force from May 1.
Besides the Indian mango, the other fruits and vegetables banned included Colocasia (taro, eddo) Momordica sp (bitter gourd), Solanum melongena (eggplant) and Trichosanthes sp (snake gourd). The commission says the decision was taken due to a high number of intercepted consignments containing quarantine pests, mainly insects.
A review of the measures will take place before December 31, 2015.
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