A well-regarded expat chef of Indian origin said to me the other day that he was going back to Italy because he didn't see any future for international cuisine in this country. He wasn't exaggerating.
His hotel, one of India's showpiece addresses, will run out of rice used to make risotto by December and there's no possibility of replacements coming in because of the horrible jam in which food imports from across the world are stuck.
With the apex court staying the Bombay High Court's verdict against the Food Safety and Standards Act, it will take a long legal battle to save the lifeline of our fine-dining restaurant.It's because the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has got a stay from the Supreme Court on a Bombay High Court verdict quashing the law it has been implementing with the most disastrous consequences. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, under whose ministry the FSSAI operates, refuses to intervene in the matter, even as food imports, from cheese and chocolates to olive oil and Scotch whisky, worth Rs.22,000 crore are stuck at Indian ports awaiting clearance.
"This is seriously hurting Brand India. It is coming across as a nation putting up barriers that prevent legitimate business," says Samir Kuckreja, President, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). "It denies consumers, both residents and international visitors, the natural freedom of choice?" Kuckreja is worried about the impact this confusion will have on the restaurant business, which has been on a steady growth curve in the past five years. The consignments of international restaurants are all piling up at ports, awaiting clearance, and to avoid paying demurrage, these operators are now simply re-exporting the perishable products.
The mess, in fact, has acquired tragi-comic proportions now that it has become known that Annapoorna World of Food India, one of two international food shows of any consequence held in the country, will have the dubious distinction of being the first event of its kind in the world where food and drink samples cannot be tasted by the visitors. This was inevitable because the organisers, led by FICCI, decided to duck the elaborate and expensive FSSAI testing procedures by assuring the authorities that the international consignments would only be displayed, not sampled! If you think this is ridiculous, what about Scotch whisky manufacturers being asked to make new labels that list out the ingredients used and the relevant nutritional information to boot? As a result of this most arbitrary rule, ships stacked with Scotch whisky are all held up.
Already, Lindt, which had emerged as the top-selling brand of chocolates during Diwali, has bid goodbye to India after it had to suffer losses because FSSAI did not allow three of its shipments from entering the country on grounds that may have been valid in the 1950s, but not in a world governed by the WHO's Codex Alimentaria, of which India is a signatory nation. Callebaut, another Swiss chocolate manufacturer whose products are most sought after by top pastry chefs around the world, also had to shut shop some months back after a consignment of 300 tonnes had flunked the FSSAI test.
The absurdity of the law is apparent from the fact that the FSSAI has issued 14 advisories, which are in effect amendments, in the one year since the regulations framed under the law - Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 - came into effect. The Act doesn't have many more food standards apart from the 377 listed in the junked Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The Codex Alimentaria has more than 11,000 listed on its pages. Absurd?
His hotel, one of India's showpiece addresses, will run out of rice used to make risotto by December and there's no possibility of replacements coming in because of the horrible jam in which food imports from across the world are stuck.
With the apex court staying the Bombay High Court's verdict against the Food Safety and Standards Act, it will take a long legal battle to save the lifeline of our fine-dining restaurant.It's because the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has got a stay from the Supreme Court on a Bombay High Court verdict quashing the law it has been implementing with the most disastrous consequences. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, under whose ministry the FSSAI operates, refuses to intervene in the matter, even as food imports, from cheese and chocolates to olive oil and Scotch whisky, worth Rs.22,000 crore are stuck at Indian ports awaiting clearance."This is seriously hurting Brand India. It is coming across as a nation putting up barriers that prevent legitimate business," says Samir Kuckreja, President, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). "It denies consumers, both residents and international visitors, the natural freedom of choice?" Kuckreja is worried about the impact this confusion will have on the restaurant business, which has been on a steady growth curve in the past five years. The consignments of international restaurants are all piling up at ports, awaiting clearance, and to avoid paying demurrage, these operators are now simply re-exporting the perishable products.
The mess, in fact, has acquired tragi-comic proportions now that it has become known that Annapoorna World of Food India, one of two international food shows of any consequence held in the country, will have the dubious distinction of being the first event of its kind in the world where food and drink samples cannot be tasted by the visitors. This was inevitable because the organisers, led by FICCI, decided to duck the elaborate and expensive FSSAI testing procedures by assuring the authorities that the international consignments would only be displayed, not sampled! If you think this is ridiculous, what about Scotch whisky manufacturers being asked to make new labels that list out the ingredients used and the relevant nutritional information to boot? As a result of this most arbitrary rule, ships stacked with Scotch whisky are all held up.Already, Lindt, which had emerged as the top-selling brand of chocolates during Diwali, has bid goodbye to India after it had to suffer losses because FSSAI did not allow three of its shipments from entering the country on grounds that may have been valid in the 1950s, but not in a world governed by the WHO's Codex Alimentaria, of which India is a signatory nation. Callebaut, another Swiss chocolate manufacturer whose products are most sought after by top pastry chefs around the world, also had to shut shop some months back after a consignment of 300 tonnes had flunked the FSSAI test.
The absurdity of the law is apparent from the fact that the FSSAI has issued 14 advisories, which are in effect amendments, in the one year since the regulations framed under the law - Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 - came into effect. The Act doesn't have many more food standards apart from the 377 listed in the junked Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The Codex Alimentaria has more than 11,000 listed on its pages. Absurd?
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