The recent investigation that leading brands were involved in the adulteration of honey shocked Indian consumers. Despite widespread media coverage and call for regulation, the Centre for Science and Environment found that the regulatory body remains lax towards the issue. A report from MANYA SAINI.
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AN investigation by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in December 2020 revealed the extent of the food adulteration business in India with 17 leading producers of honey out of 22 failing the test of purity. The revelation caused widespread reverberations across the country.
At a recent webinar, CSE said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has failed to take action to combat the menace.
Food adulteration is a thriving but highly nefarious business in the country. In the case of honey, CSE laboratory results showed that modified sugar syrup imported from China was mixed with pure honey. The three brands to successfully pass the test were Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature's Nectar.
The most significant aspect of the CSE investigation remains that the adultered honey passed all the required standard testing of the FSSAI. The sophisticated and highly evolved practices of honey adulteration have surpassed current directives and thus need heavy revision. Some of the suggestions include a focused approach towards traceability, law enforcement, public testing and regulating the import of sugar syrups.
A study by TAM Media Research on advertising volumes revealed that expenditure on honey grew nine times in December 2020 as compared to November 2020. Amid the allegations and findings of CSE becoming public knowledge, leading brands took to all three mediums, print, television and digital to placate the raging consumers and assure them of the quality of their honey. Some of them even had labels strung around the honey containers saying that they were 100% pure.
“The sophisticated and highly evolved practices of honey adulteration have surpassed current directives and thus need heavy revision. Some of the suggestions include a focused approach towards traceability, law enforcement, public testing and regulating the import of sugar syrups.
Amit Khurana, programme director, food safety and toxins unit, CSE, said, "The companies are making such claims because there is no deterrent action. This is exactly why the FSSAI should have come forward, as it is now proved that its tests can fail to detect adulteration."
Amid inaction by the regulatory body, Dabur, counted among the most trusted honey brands of the country, has launched a campaign where it has invited customers to download a purity certificate from their website. Similar is the case with Patanjali, whose founder Baba Randev has shot a television advertisement with claims that the company's honey is assured of its quality on over 100 parameters.
The two are one of the many, who have denied or undermined the findings of the laboratory tests conducted by CSE. The consumers continue to tussle with the brands, while civil society organisations call for new regulations in the honey sector.
Traceability, simply put, is tracing the food to its original source through a designed system and network. In a recent webinar held by the CSE, Sunita Narain, the director-general observed that while traceability exists for exported food products, a similar channel needs to be developed for food consumed and produced domestically.
“While organic produce finds itself held at a higher standard, the same accountability must extend to conventional products as well in the interest of public safety and nutrition.
Adit Nadig, co-founder of TraceX Technologies during the webinar observed, that the added advantage of this is the empowerment of consumers who would be in a position to question and verify the claims of brands when they present their standards of purity.
While organic produce finds itself held at a higher standard, the same accountability must extend to conventional products as well in the interest of public safety and nutrition. "Traceability is inescapable and it is the need of the hour," said Tarun Bajaj, director of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
India through both policy actions of the regulatory bodies, as well as consumer awareness, needs to take active actions to combat food adulteration. Millions of people in the country buy honey and similar products associated with generations of strongly held beliefs of immunity and traditional knowledge. Food and its production must be protected, as it is deeply rooted in the health, nutrition and livelihood of the people.
(Manya Saini is a journalism student at the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune, and an intern with The Leaflet.)