Spice Board Demands Quality Check Details From Indian Brands About Carcinogen Ingredients: Report

Hong Kong’s Center For Food Safety (CFS) said that it found traces of a pesticide, ethylene oxide, in samples of different kinds of pre-packaged spice-mix products.

The products that came under the scrutiny are Madras Curry Powder, Sambhar Mixed Masala Powder, Curry Powder Mixed Masala Powder, and Fish Curry Masala

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The Spice Board of India asked Everest and another Indian brand to share details regarding quality checks after certain products of the brands were barred from sale in Hong Kong for containing certain cancer-causing ingredients. Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s Center For Food Safety (CFS) said that it found traces of a pesticide, ethylene oxide, in samples of different kinds of pre-packaged spice-mix products. As such, the authority placed a bar on the sales of three spice blends from a popular Indian spice brand and one product from Everest, reported Reuters. 

The products that came under scrutiny were Madras Curry Powder, Sambhar Mixed Masala Powder, Curry Powder Mixed Masala Powder, and Everest’s Fish Curry Masala. Singapore also directed a recall of the Everest spice mix and cautioned the people against consuming it.

Notably, both brands enjoy immense popularity in India and also export products to nations located in Europe, Asia, and North America. The scrutiny resulted in the Indian food authorities initiating quality checks on the brands on Monday.

The report quoted a senior official working at the Spices Board of India and said that the authorities asked the firms to explain their testing procedures and check if they were complying with the regulations needed. The Spice Board is responsible for overseeing quality standards and testing guidelines in the spice industry.

“We need to get the relevant details on how this has happened ... We need to check if the conditions required by importing countries were met and if our regulations were met,” the report noted citing the official.

Everest notably issued a statement and said that its spices remained safe for consumption and the brand only exported products after ‘receiving necessary clearances and approval from the laboratories of the Spice Board of India’.