Centre cracks down on import of spurious food items

Consumer cries have finally woken up the finance ministry to direct stringent testing and close scrutiny of imported food products.

In the wake of growing complaints that adulterated food items were being dumped into the country, the ministry has asked the central board of excise and customs (CBEC) to ensure that all imports of food products, seeds, oil and grain are checked for quality at the port of entry.

Accordingly, CBEC has sent a circular to all chief commissioners of customs and central excise.

The circular makes it clear that “import of all edible or food products, including tea, [and their] domestic sale and manufacture have to comply with the quality and packaging requirements under Prevention of Food Adulteration [PFA] Act 1954.”

It advises that customs officials switch to a system of random checking of 5% to 20% of consignments, so that importers do not face harassment.
However, the circular says, if a food item fails quality test the customs would place it in the alert category, discontinue its random checking and revert to the procedure of compulsory checking.

The customs have been directed to ensure that imported pre-packaged food items carry best-before date and nutrition information complying with the labelling provision under PFA rules.
The stringent conditions follow a Delhi high court order that the government make sure chocolates and other imported pre-packaged food products carry details of ingredients.
Meanwhile, the government has extended the ban on milk and milk products imported from China.