Mint Primer | Here's food for thought: How safe is your child’s dinner plate?
Prominent brands are under the scanner for selling sugary infant food, chicken fed with antibiotics, and spices peppered with cancer-causing chemicals. Naturally, experts are concerned about lax regulations. Mint reviews the safety and quality of our packaged food: Last week, Swiss watchdog Public Eye said Nestle adds excess sugar to its infant milk and cereal products sold in low- and middle-income countries, including India, but not in developed markets.
Nestle said that over the years, it has cut ‘added sugar’ in products sold in India. In another instance, four spice mixes sold by MDH and Everest were red-flagged by regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore, due to presence of ethylene oxide—a carcinogenic food fumigant. Finally, Venky’s, a poultry brand, was found pushing antibiotics to enhance poultry production, which causes drug resistance in humans.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is probing two cases—infant products and spices. It is collecting samples from manufacturing units across India which will be tested by labs. For infant products, FSSAI will test multiple brands to check if they violate local laws.
Earlier in April, the commerce and industry ministry advised e-commerce firms to remove the ‘health drinks’ tag from popular products, citing lack of standards and definition under domestic food laws. In April last year, a controversy erupted after Bournvita, a drink marketed to children, was found to contain excess sugar. Food companies often mislabel packaged food, so consumers think they are healthy.
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