“What kind of country puts a stop on chocolate imports?” chef Gaggan Anand’s question echoed across the room during his interaction with the media last week. Bangkok-based Anand, who was in Mumbai to cook a series of meals at the Four Seasons, was referring to Swiss chocolate maker Lindt’s decision to pull out of India after consignments of its chocolates were reportedly sent back from the Mumbai port in August 2013 and January 2014, as they did not comply with the new labeling guidelines that have been set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Lindt chocolates, which were being imported into India without incident for the past six years, are not the only products that we won’t be seeing in our stores or plates soon. There are containers full of imported goods, reportedly worth a whopping Rs22,000 crore that are languishing in our ports, for the same reason. Most restaurants across the city rely on some percentage of imports, and many of these establishments are facing a shortage of items like butter, cheese, sausages, oils, vinegars, flour, rice, cocoa powder, wines and liquor. “All imports have taken a hit,” said a Mumbai-based importer, who requested not to be named.
Restaurateurs have been dealing with the frustrating delay in import clearances long before customers got word of the problem, which was highlighted in a spate of recent news reports including this well-articulated piece on Indianrestaurantspy.com. The reports paint a rather gloomy picture for the country’s gourmands who have grown accustomed to a certain quality of ingredients when dining out. “Soon we will have to serve daal and khichdi on our menu,” a chef of a fine-dining restaurant in Colaba joked.
According to its website, the FSSAI was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 “as a statutory body for laying down science based standards for articles of food and regulating manufacturing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food so as to ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption”. It was in September 2010 that the FSSAI took over the duties of food inspection and sampling from the Port Health Officers (PHO). Importers say that since the middle of 2013, the FSSAI has been looking at labeling and what is permissible by way of safe ingredients more minutely and has even implemented new and somewhat arbitrary labeling parameters some of which are highlighted here and here.
“The kind of labels that the FSSAI are demanding for all imports to India are rather peculiar,” an importer said. “What hasn’t been discussed, however, is the cost of label modification. Hundred per cent compliance with these new guidelines may be the only way out for us importers, but that’s a huge cost we have to incur and ultimately it will percolate to the consumer,” he said. There’s also the chance that manufacturers who are supplying the same products to a host of other countries, will pull out of India rather than amend labels as per our unique and seemingly unnecessary diktats, as Lindt was faced with doing.
Perhaps the bigger issue plaguing imports is the somewhat ambiguous business of product standards. “The list of ingredients that are permissible in the country are archaic, and the definitions for what is ‘safe’ are pretty vague,” said the importer. For instance, there’s no clarity on items like tofu and coconut cream, which though widely used across menus today have no mention in the FSSAI’s product standards, and are thus being held back at the ports. The lack of clarity with regards to these ingredients thus opens the matter to interpretation by the importer and the port officer. “What the officer is deeming as ‘unsafe’ is not necessarily harmful to human health as proved by scientific tests,” said the importer. “If the imports are safe for the rest of the world, then they’re safe for us.”
All the people we interviewed for this story requested not to be named out of fear of retribution from the FSSAI. “We’ve heard frightful stories of importers landing up in jail when they’ve spoken up about the FSSAI’s new policies,” the owner of a popular casual dining chain said. According to the importer, the FSSAI has been made out to be the big bad wolf, when that’s not entirely true. “These officers are doing their job,” he said. “They’ve inherited these guidelines and are simply following out orders stipulated a long time ago. We are in fact in regular talks with them and we’ve even proposed new updated labeling laws for imported goods that might serve both them and us.” The importers collectively proposed changes in the obsolete guidelines two years ago, however, the FSSAI has done nothing to implement their suggestions. “That’s the worrying part, as such nobody can forecast what the future of dining in India is going to be.”
Lindt chocolates, which were being imported into India without incident for the past six years, are not the only products that we won’t be seeing in our stores or plates soon. There are containers full of imported goods, reportedly worth a whopping Rs22,000 crore that are languishing in our ports, for the same reason. Most restaurants across the city rely on some percentage of imports, and many of these establishments are facing a shortage of items like butter, cheese, sausages, oils, vinegars, flour, rice, cocoa powder, wines and liquor. “All imports have taken a hit,” said a Mumbai-based importer, who requested not to be named.
Restaurateurs have been dealing with the frustrating delay in import clearances long before customers got word of the problem, which was highlighted in a spate of recent news reports including this well-articulated piece on Indianrestaurantspy.com. The reports paint a rather gloomy picture for the country’s gourmands who have grown accustomed to a certain quality of ingredients when dining out. “Soon we will have to serve daal and khichdi on our menu,” a chef of a fine-dining restaurant in Colaba joked.
According to its website, the FSSAI was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 “as a statutory body for laying down science based standards for articles of food and regulating manufacturing, processing, distribution, sale and import of food so as to ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption”. It was in September 2010 that the FSSAI took over the duties of food inspection and sampling from the Port Health Officers (PHO). Importers say that since the middle of 2013, the FSSAI has been looking at labeling and what is permissible by way of safe ingredients more minutely and has even implemented new and somewhat arbitrary labeling parameters some of which are highlighted here and here.
“The kind of labels that the FSSAI are demanding for all imports to India are rather peculiar,” an importer said. “What hasn’t been discussed, however, is the cost of label modification. Hundred per cent compliance with these new guidelines may be the only way out for us importers, but that’s a huge cost we have to incur and ultimately it will percolate to the consumer,” he said. There’s also the chance that manufacturers who are supplying the same products to a host of other countries, will pull out of India rather than amend labels as per our unique and seemingly unnecessary diktats, as Lindt was faced with doing.
Perhaps the bigger issue plaguing imports is the somewhat ambiguous business of product standards. “The list of ingredients that are permissible in the country are archaic, and the definitions for what is ‘safe’ are pretty vague,” said the importer. For instance, there’s no clarity on items like tofu and coconut cream, which though widely used across menus today have no mention in the FSSAI’s product standards, and are thus being held back at the ports. The lack of clarity with regards to these ingredients thus opens the matter to interpretation by the importer and the port officer. “What the officer is deeming as ‘unsafe’ is not necessarily harmful to human health as proved by scientific tests,” said the importer. “If the imports are safe for the rest of the world, then they’re safe for us.”
All the people we interviewed for this story requested not to be named out of fear of retribution from the FSSAI. “We’ve heard frightful stories of importers landing up in jail when they’ve spoken up about the FSSAI’s new policies,” the owner of a popular casual dining chain said. According to the importer, the FSSAI has been made out to be the big bad wolf, when that’s not entirely true. “These officers are doing their job,” he said. “They’ve inherited these guidelines and are simply following out orders stipulated a long time ago. We are in fact in regular talks with them and we’ve even proposed new updated labeling laws for imported goods that might serve both them and us.” The importers collectively proposed changes in the obsolete guidelines two years ago, however, the FSSAI has done nothing to implement their suggestions. “That’s the worrying part, as such nobody can forecast what the future of dining in India is going to be.”
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