After the Maggi Ban, Haldiram’s and Britannia Face the Fire

Maggi crisis is yet to be resolved and already another major food giant has come under the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) scanner. However, this time it wasn’t the Indian FDA who levelled charges against a foreign brand, but the US FDA who deemed products from reputed Indian companies – Haldiram’s and Britaania – unsuitable for consumption.

According to a Wall Street Journal Report, “Indian snack brand Haldiram’s product have ‘pesticides and other harmful bacteria in high levels.”

The report goes on to show how in just first five months of 2015, snack imports from India to the US, have been rejected more times than from any other country in the world. It also says that India alone is responsible for more than half of the snack products that fail in legit tests and are blocked from sale in the US.

These are numerous evidences that point out how foul the food business in India is, with half of its products being unable to pass basic tests that make them edible. Apart from this, it also highlights the foul Food Laws that are governing food consumption in India.

The US FDA claimed that it first found pesticides in Haldiram’s products in September 2014, and labelled its cookies, biscuits and wafers as ‘filthy, putrid or decomposed’, due to the presence of poisonous substances in them. Apart from this, it also rejected a few products from Britannia as being unhealthy.

In their defence, Haldiram’s and Britannia dismissed all charges and asserted compliance of all rules

“Our food is 100% safe and complies with the law of the land. A pesticide that is permitted in India may not be allowed there. And even if it is, they may not allow it in the same concentration as it is here’,  a senior official from Haldiram’s told Wall Street Journal.

“Britannia exports to the U.S. only out of U.S. FDA registered factories in India and meets product/labeling standards,” the company said in an email. “These may be instances of shipments made by independent exporters based out of India.”

In the light of these findings, all one can wonder is how many more evidences would it take for food rules to become more stringent in India; for if a man be what he eats, then we are in deep trouble!