New Delhi: After some of their spice mixes were banned in Singapore and Hong Kong, Mahashian Di Hatti (MDH) Pvt Ltd is back in the news following a report by Indian Express saying that the United States customs authorities refused 31% of all spice-related shipments from the company, citing salmonella contamination in the last six months.
Salmonella is a bacteria that causes infections that result in diarrhoea, fever and stomach pains. Contamination happens due to unhygienic practices, an expert told the paper.
The US refused 11 shipments, which is 31% of all shipments from MDH, since October 2023. The Express report notes that the refusal rate since October 2023 has doubled for all shipments sent in the earlier US federal fiscal year – October 2022 to September 2023.
The newspaper has obtained this data from the US Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
The report notes that the MDH shipments belong to the ‘spices, flavours, and salts’ category which accounts for approximately 10% of of all refused human food shipments originating in India.
Refusals under ‘miscellaneous food related items’ account for 31%. Then come refusals under ‘snack food items’ and ‘bakery products’ – 9% and 7%.
As Sumit Jha wrote for The Wire, after the report on the bans was published, people had asked how Indian food regulators had failed to detect pesticide ethylene oxide, which is classified as a Group-1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in food products in India.
Shortly afterwards, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) announced that it would start taking samples of powdered spices of all brands – including MDH – across the country.
Reuters had reported on April 26 how the FDA is gathering information on MDH and Everest products.
Meanwhile, MDH said in a statement yesterday (April 28) that they do not use ethylene oxide. “We reassure our buyers and consumers that we do not use ethylene oxide at any stage of storing, processing, or packing our spices,” it said.
