Patralekha Chatterjee | Amid row over masala, is the food we eat safe?

Amid all the talk about “Viksit Bharat” by 2047, it is worth remembering that a key difference between a developed and a developing country is in the quality of everyday life of ordinary people.  Most people take relatively clean air, clean water and safe food for granted in developed countries. Not so in the rest of the world. Which brings me to a slew of recent media reports that suggest that we are not only wallowing in toxic air and toxic speeches but also in food that puts us at risk.

In polarised India, the vegetarian/non-vegetarian fault line continues to be the all-weather headline-grabber. Both groups are at risk, however, when it comes to unsafe food. The recent stories about fake (synthetic) paneer, spices with carcinogenic ingredients, chicken possibly fattened with antibiotics, potentially leading to antibiotic resistance, and baby food with added sugar spotlight an old story. The companies on the dock are both international and national, big names and small players. I could not contact all the errant companies for their side of the story so I am not naming them in this particular column.

There is a sense of déjà vu. More worryingly, things are getting worse. Last year, the State Food Safety Index (SFSI), released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), India’s food regulator, found that 19 out of 20 large states, including Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, had slipped from 2019 in their 2023 scores on food safety.  

If this is what is stated officially, just imagine the reality!

As someone who loves food, I was distressed to read that “fake paneer” has been flooding the market for quite some years now. In the most recent case, the authorities seized more than 1,000 kg of synthetic paneer along the Mumbai-Delhi Expressway. In May 2022, the Mumbai police had seized almost 2,000 kg of synthetic paneer from two factories. National newspapers are now running articles on how to detect spurious paneer, often made by mixing milk powder and water, further curdled with lime juice and acetic acid, and sometimes laced with detergent. 

How many will carry out rapid tests on paneer before eating it?

India is also embroiled in a “masala” controversy. India’s food safety regulator has reportedly asked food commissioners across India to collect samples from all spice manufacturing units in the country after regulators from Hong Kong and Singapore red-flagged two popular Indian spice brands over the alleged presence of ethylene oxide, well beyond the permissible limit. Vendors in both these places have been asked to remove the spices from the shelves.

The World Health Organisation considers ethylene oxide “as a probable human carcinogen” and says “its levels in the environment should be kept as low as feasible”. Then there is an investigation by Public Eye, a Switzerland-based NGO, and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), which raises uncomfortable questions about a leading multinational food and beverage conglomerate’s manufacturing practices in India. According to the report, the company allegedly adds sugar to cereals for babies in developing countries, a practice it does not follow in rich countries.

The company says it has reduced sugar content by up to 30 per cent in recent years, but there is still no response to the critical question about double standards.

Then there is the killer issue -- use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry feed to promote growth. A recent report by the US-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and a national newspaper alleged that one of India’s major poultry producers was selling products aimed at speeding up poultry growth and which contained drugs vital for human health.

Once again, this did not surprise anyone who has been tracking the misuse of antibiotics in livestock and poultry feed, leading to a proliferation of multi-drug resistant bacteria. In 2018, TBIJ had found Colistin, a “last-resort” antibiotic used to treat severe human infections, in India’s poultry industry. At that point, no law was broken as there was no law. The furore that followed the revelation and a landmark study on Colistin by an inter-disciplinary team of doctors and scientists led the Indian government to ban the use of Colistin in farms. This was a laudable step, but there has been no follow-up on the impact of the ban.

Clearly, unmonitored use of medically important antibiotics in the poultry sector for non-therapeutic purposes is disastrous anywhere, including India, which has the highest burden of bacterial infection and sustained antimicrobial resistance.

India is among the countries that endorsed the Muscat Ministerial Manifesto on AMR (2022), which outlines three global targets. One of the three goals relates to reducing the total amount of antimicrobials used in the agri-food system by at least 30-50 per cent from the current level by 2030.

“I think India has provisions in place to deal with AMR (antimicrobial resistance) in both medical and agricultural settings, but the question is where it falls as a priority in terms of enforcement. I think the example of how decisively India dealt with Colistin once the issue was well known is commendable”, says Anirban Mohapatra, a US-based microbiologist and author of a new book When the Drugs Don’t Work: The Hidden Pandemic that Could End Modern Medicine.

“Just as with environmental pollution, the specific link between antibiotic use in animals and drug-resistant infections in humans is difficult to prove. Despite these challenges, there is substantial evidence suggesting that antibiotic use in agriculture contributes to the rise in antibiotic-resistant superbugs,” writes Mohapatra in his book.

A 2024 report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) notes: “The results of several studies conducted on AMR pathogens in animals from different parts of India is indicative of an alarming situation. Both the food-producing and companion animals were found to harbour AMR pathogens.”

India has a National Action Plan on Antimicrobial resistance. But when it comes to implementation, there are key challenges including sub-optimal financial allocations, inadequate “One Health” and programmatic approach and weak harnessing of existing national capacity in all aspects of AMR, says the FAO report. State governments are not fully onboard.

We can go hoarse blaming multinationals and domestic companies for putting profits before human health but it boils down to food standards and the regulatory environment. The nature and composition of the FSSAI is central to ensuring that all decisions are in the public interest and are evidence-based.

The public cannot become forensic scientists overnight, testing everything before they eat. If Indian regulators will not protect Indian citizens and Indian lives, who will?