Ever since the story about Sudan 1 contamination in chillies from India has broken, the food industry has been in a tizzy with over 300 different food preparations being recalled from marketshelves. Well, at least they are soing something about it.
In a typical reaction (I dont know if this is typically Indian or typically Congress-I), the Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath brushed aside the charges. I've heard two versions of his defence, if you can call it that - it never happened, its all a conspiracy to setup artificial trade barriers or it never happened, "we have very stringent norms about colouring agents, chillies supplied to the European Union did not have any carcinogenic (cancer causing) substances".
I could not crib about this enough, why not come clean and say that mistakes have been made. Its a lot more reassuring as a victim to know that there a realization that mistakes have been made and steps are being taken to avoid repetitions. When there is no will to even recognize the problem, forget about fixing the system, who will believe us or buy from us? India may be a big contributor to the international spice trade, but I would be surprised if things stayed that way.
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