India, with a share of over 40% in the global production of spices, produces over 75 different types of these and can lead the world in developing food safety standards for spices through the Codex Alimentarius. However, before that, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms must be uniformly implemented at home.
India is the host country for a Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs, with the FSSAI as its nodal agency. Codex is an initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization that aims to set global food safety standards.
India has been trying to align its food safety standards with Codex norms to ensure that what applies to imports also applies to domestic production. For Indian exports, the standards of import markets prevail, but as increasingly more developing countries adopt Codex specifications, a large part of the global market could soon have nearly uniform food safety standards. India has an interest in shaping these.
India has long been known as a standard taker rather than maker. This can and must change. The country has a global advantage in this exercise for multiple reasons.
First, India is the world’s largest producer, exporter and market for spices.
Second, the FSSAI has already developed product-specific standards for 45 spices, while the current Codex has norms for only 14. So, the standards for many spices already set by the FSSAI, like coriander, could be pushed through the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs as globally applicable. For this, we need collaborations aimed at serving common interests with other spice producers like Sri Lanka.
Third, Indian consumers are not just becoming more health conscious, they are showing an interest in food safety standards and matters like curcumin content in turmeric. Growing domestic demand for products that are organic or free of chemical fertilizers is another indicator of it.
Revisit domestic standards for precision: Setting international standards by aligning them with Indian standards would demand that domestic standards are precise, clear and quantitative rather than qualitative, leaving less scope for interpretation.
For example, in case of live insects in a product like turmeric powder, the Codex requires “0 count/100g,” while the FSSAI needs it to be “Free from mould, living and dead insects, insect fragments, rodent contamination” and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) asks for it to be “Free from dirt, mould growth, and insect infestation.” The FSSAI’s scientific committee could review its qualitative standards to make them more precise.
Reduce overlaps: In India, multiple agencies set standards for spices. The BIS and Agmark are two such examples. While FSSAI standards are mandatory and should be strictly followed, the BIS and Agmark are voluntary standards and should ideally be tighter than FSSAI standards. However, this is not the case for spices.
For example, for coriander whole, under ‘odour, taste and flavour,’ the FSSAI says it “shall have typical aroma and shall be free from mustiness” while the BIS says: “The taste and flavour of coriander whole shall have the characteristic pleasant taste and aroma. The material shall be free from musty odour.” The language differs but does not reflect higher standards.
Agmark standards are higher than Codex in some cases. A survey by the authors found industry players asking why India has two similar standards. The BIS standards like Agmark should be higher and cover additional properties.
For example, the BIS can set standards for different chilli varieties based on their pungency. For red chillies, Scoville Heat Unit or American Spice Trade Association values can be used. This would signal to consumers that a BIS or an Agmark stamp denotes superiority on some parameters. In developed countries, other standards are higher than those laid down by the food safety authority, or differ in some key ways.
Enforce FSSAI standards strictly along supply chains: Playing a leadership role in standard setting at a global forum would also require the FSSAI to ensure uniform implementation of its standards at home. Multiple studies, some by government agencies, have picked up spice samples from mandis that do not meet FSSAI standards.
An Icrier study (Policy Brief # 73) found that this is primarily due to three reasons. First, heavy use of fertilizer and pesticides by farms. Second, lack of modern post-harvest technology and poor storage conditions. Third, products from different farms get mixed up at mandis without any supply chain traceability.
The FSSAI has no mandate to regulate farming practices in the country. If the Prime Minister’s call to reduce chemical fertilizers by 50% must be implemented on-ground, the FSSAI should be given the mandate to regulate agricultural production and implement food safety standards at the farm level.
Today, export-control agencies like the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority or Coffee Board can reach farmers through their apps or by means of geo-tagging, but the FSSAI cannot.
For Indian spices to meet standards that would assure global consumers of quality, the FSSAI should oversee the entire supply chain all the way from farms to retail points. A reputation for top-notch quality within the country would ease India’s path to leadership of global standards.
Samriddhi Dube of Icrier contributed to this article. These are the authors’ personal views.
The authors are, respectively, professor and external consultant, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier).