US Food Safety Dept Rejects MTR, Wipro Items For Being “Unsafe”

The US has reportedly rejected many consignments of soap and detergent manufactured by Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), along with food items of MTR.

Reporting for the Times of India, Chethan Kumar writes:

In all, 1,859 consignments from Indian companies from various states have been rejected by the US between January and August 2016, and experts said several of them could be victims of parallel exports, where dealers export branded products without the knowledge and consent of the manufacturers.

Speaking to TOI, MTR Foods CEO Sanjay Sharma said, “The shipments rejected by USFDA are all cases of parallel exports done by small traders who send mixed consignments. These exporters purchase locally without caring about the compliance issues of the importing country. Such rejections impact the company and brand credibility in the eyes of the USFDA.”

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, in a written response to TOI, said:

We don’t export to the US. So we are surprised with this report. We suspect that this could be a counterfeit as one of the samples is said to be manufactured in Mysore. We don’t make soaps in Mysore. We face counterfeit issues in Indian market also. We will investigate and ensure that no counterfeit products reach our customers.

Earlier, reports suggested that the Food and Drugs Association (FDA) of the US rejected more snack imports from India than any other country in the first five months of 2015.

Firstpost reported:

The data on the website shows that most of snacks that were rejected were made by Haldiram’s, a major Indian snacks and sweets manufacturer based out of Nagpur. For the month February 2015, the FDA website lists out various Haldiram products under its snacks category in an ‘Import Refusal Report’ which lists refusal actions taken by the FDA against imported products.

Wall Street Journal reported that the reasons for rejection of these products “vary from problems in packaging and labeling to alleged contamination. The FDA website says Indian products have been found to contain high levels of pesticides, mold and the bacteria salmonella.”