Scotch shipment held up over non-compliance

1% of the shipments has been rejected so far this year, compared to under 2% last year.
NEW DELHI: For all the noise by foreign chocolate manufacturers and scotch and wine makers over the food safety regulator holding up consignments, it turns out that around 1% of the shipments has been rejected so far this year, compared to under 2% last year.
What's more, the maximum number of rejections was due to the absence of the date of manufacturing and the manufacturer's name — issues seen as critical from safety point of view — followed by labeling-related issues and the lack of ingredients list, official data accessed by TOI has revealed. There are several cases where goods with unpermitted ingredients were being imported into the country but were stopped at ports.
Over the past few months, chocolate, food and alcohol importers had created a lot of noise over shipments being rejected on various grounds, with some going to the extent of suggesting that several important ingredients used by specialty restaurants were not available due to Food Safety Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) crackdown. There have also been suggestions that it would be tough to find imported chocolates this Diwali. But data tells a different story. Between April and August this year, of the 304 consignments that were not issued the 'non-compliance certificate,' 26, which is the maximum number, related to flavours, which are added to various food products. This was followed by alcohol (17), beverages (16), chocolates (14) and confectionary (13). In case of chocolates, several consignments of global giants were rejected as they contained vegetable fat, which was as high as 70% in some cases and were being brought into the country as dark, white or milk compounds, said sources familiar with the development.