Pune:
Italian restaurant Dario's in the city has run out of ricotta salata, pecorino and goat cheese from France, and is having to adapt and substitute them in the cooking to keep patrons happy .
Like Dario's, several other fine-dining restaurants and their patrons are experiencing adearth of imported food products and upmarket food stores have almost no stocks of Swiss chocolates, cookies, canned fish, sushi ingredients, wasabi or Thai curry paste.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) rules on product labeling has led to a shortage of imported food products from canned fish to condiments, sauces, vinegars, cheese, honey, pastas, and many other products.
Sources from the Forum of Indian Food Importers (FIFI), a national body of food product importers, said the shortage across the country is over 50%, with close to 450 imported food products out-ofstock in Pune alone.
Over 4,000 containers are stuck at ports following the restrictions on labeling and may not arrive in time for the festive season (Diwali and Christmas). By this time, items like chocolates and biscuits used for gifting will be out of stock completely .
The forum has 127 corporate members, 45 associate members and 11,265 retailers.Amit Lohani, FIFI's national convenor, said, “The containers are stuck at Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata ports because of labeling deficiencies or because the imported food product labels do not match FSSAI rules. For instance, the green or red dot on labels to declare whether the item is vegetarian or non-vegetarian is not mandatory in other countries, but food products in India must have it.“ In addition, India has not updated its food standard procedures. “Officials do not have any standards to test an imported product. Food safety officials do not know what wasabi sauce is, and therefore do not accept the product. They also insist on labels in English, and do not allow stickers on labels either. But changing the entire label on the product is difficult for manufacturers for just one destination,“ said Lohani.
Industry sources said dairy products, sea food, meats, sauces, chocolates, fresh fruits, biscuits, olives, canola oil, canned fish, glutenfree products, apple cider vinegar and other products are out of stock or in short supply.
City-based restaurants cater to Italian, Chinese, southeast Asian, middle-eastern cuisines and are currently providing patrons with the nextbest substitutes to the missing ingredients.
The shortage has affected the clientele. A high-end res taurant in the city , specializing in sushi, said it has been out of tuna (from Norway) for days.
“Clients are not happy, but we are helpless,“ said a chef.
“Italian cuisine needs va riety, which under the circum stances, is tough to get. Each cheese has a typical flavour and substitution isn't a long term option. Ultimately , it af fects us as customers want their preferred flavours,“ said Rebecca Dezio, company di rector of Dario's.
The owner of another Ital ian restaurant in the city said they are dealing with a short age of meat, cheese, imported alcohol and sauces. “Quite a few dishes are off the menu be cause we do not have the ingre dients. We have had to compro mise on recipes too,“ she said. Praful Chandawarkar, owner of Malaka Spice, said they have been stocking up on the imported sauces. “Ready made sauces such as soy and fish sauce are scarce, so we pick them up in bulk when they come. Otherwise, there is no hope,“ he said.
Puru Gupta, chief execu tive officer and co-founder of healthyworld.in, a wellness so lution company , said, “A signif icant proportion of our portfo lio comprises imported health brands. But clearance from the Customs and the FSSAI for these health products faces a bottleneck. We have travelled to and shortlisted health prod ucts from ASEAN countries, but clearances at the port are an intimidating part for any brand to enter India.“
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