How India can spice up global palette, in a better way

livemint.com:

India is the world’s largest producer of spices by a long shot. Hong Kong, it has been reported, has suspended the sales of three spice blends made by two Indian companies that are household brand names, MDH and Everest. The reason given for the regulatory action is that these products apparently contain high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide ethylene oxide.

It will be facile to say that in the effort to grab orders, Indian companies are cutting corners. The problems run deeper and paradoxically it is not that there are no checks to regulate the quality of these exports. There are possibly too many standards in the game.

One of those is the multiplicity of testing boards and laboratories straddling the field of spices. With good reason, since in FY23 the country exported $3.73 billion of these products, mostly turmeric, chilli, garlic and cumin seeds which occupy 75% of the total exports. For FY24, the final numbers are expected to be even higher.

So, the stakes are high. For instance, to promote the exports of turmeric, the Centre has established the National Turmeric Board in 2023. This is laudable but creates its own challenges as the latest case shows.

Already in the field of turmeric there are two regulatory bodies, the Spices Board and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). Quality controls on turmeric production at the farm level is monitored by APEDA. Once the turmeric is dried for processing to arrive at our kitchens, it is the Spices Board which gets into the action.