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G.K. Nair

The board had also written to the Customs authorities asking them not to permit spices export by these two companies. If they fail to comply with the board's requirements, their export license could be cancelled.

KOCHI, June 15

FRENCH authorities have detained a consignment of chilli powder last month following detection of "unauthorised colourant Sudan 1" in the product and issued a rapid alert notification.

When contacted, Mr S. Kannan, Director (Marketing), Spices Board, told Business Line that the board after conducting the required testing and examination had suspended with immediate effect the certification of registration of two Mumbai-based exporters of spices for 45 days. The suspension order was issued on Friday, he said.

He said the exporter, whose consignment of one container-load was detained in France, claimed that he had sourced the product from a spices processing and exporting company, in Mumbai. Testing of the samples of the consignment shipped and that from subsequent purchases from the same supplier showed the presence of Sudan 1, an "illegal and carcinogenic colourant", a particular dye used in textiles, which gives uniform orange-red colour, he said.

Another major exporter who had already shipped a consignment of chilli powder sourced from this company had withdrawn the consignment having found the presence of this chemical dye in the shipped product when tested following the news of detention from the board, he said.

The board had also written to the Customs authorities asking them not to permit export of spices by these two companies. If these exporters failed to comply with the board's requirements, their spices export license could be cancelled, he pointed out.

He said such activities of the exporters would tarnish the image of the Indian spices products apart from damaging its credibility. Further, it could attract stringent checking of other spices also, he said. Chilli was one of the major items exported last fiscal with 83,000 tonnes valued at Rs 301.55 crore. About 25 per cent of the chilli exported from the country goes in powder form, he said.

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