In a recent development, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said that they didn’t find any ethylene oxide (ETO), a cancer-causing chemical, in MDH and Everest products’ samples.
How Did This Happen?
It appears that the country’s premier food regulator came to the conclusion after extensive testing of the samples of spices sold by the two companies, as per the media report.
This investigation was started when the Hong Kong Food Authority alleged that certain spice products sold by Mahashian Di Hatti Pvt Ltd (MDH) and M/s Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd (Everest) were found to contain higher than permissible amounts of the chemical.
FSSAI Found No Grace Of Ethylene Oxide In MDH and Everest Products
Following this development, the Hong Kong authority recalled the products.
In response to this, FSSAI had launched a nationwide inspection drive on April 22.
For doing this, FSSAI has involved all state and union territory food safety commissioners and regional directors.
Further, they have collected 34 samples of Everest and MDH spices for testing from 9 Everest’s facilities in Maharashtra and Gujarat, and 25 from those of MDH in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Besides this, they have also tested the products on several other parameters such as moisture content, insect and rodent contamination, heavy metals, aflatoxins, pesticide residues and various microbiological contaminants, as informed by the news agency.
In their testing, they have specifically tested these samples for ethylene oxide at NABL-accredited laboratories.
So far, they have received 28 lab reports in which the food regulator’s Scientific Panel analyzed the samples and found that the chemical was absent in them.
In addition to this, the panel also analyzed test reports of 300 more spice samples of other brands, as mentioned in the report.
They didn’t find the traces of the cancer-causing substance further confirming that Indian products are safe for consumption.
When it comes to Ethylene oxide, it is used to sterilize spices.
This finding holds great significance as Ethylene oxide chemicals can potentially pose health risks, including cancer, if the residue exceeds safe levels.
It is noteworthy here that its threshold differs from country to country.
