Tag Archives: FSSAI

Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Spreading False Claims

By Susanne Kuehne
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Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food fraud, spread
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne.

In India, low-cholesterol or zero-cholesterol claims on product labels for spreads as well as their advertising must follow strict guidelines set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority India (FSSAI). At two Indian companies, nearly $100,000 worth of products was confiscated due to mislabeling. The spreads’ labels and nutrition panels falsely claimed that they were cholesterol free, while containing significant amounts of saturated fats.

Resources

  1. Neo, P. (February 11, 2020). Food Navigator-Asia. “Cholesterol crush: Major Indian dairy firms lose US$100,000 of products over false labelling claims”.
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

An ‘Egg-stra’ Splash Of Color

By Susanne Kuehne
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Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food fraud, eggs
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

Free-range country chicken eggs, often recognizable by their different color, fetch 30–40% more revenue than eggs from caged hens. Leghorns, a common type of chicken used for mass-production, lay white eggs. In this fraud case in India, leghorn eggs were colored by using water-based dyes, for example, made from tea. The eggs were confiscated and destroyed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and the vendors received a warning.

Resource

  1. Thomas, W. (February 3, 2020). “FSSAI destroys artificially coloured eggs”. The Hindu.
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Read Your Tea Leaves Carefully

By Susanne Kuehne
No Comments
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Tea leaves, food fraud
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne.

Tea adulteration is a very common and recurring issue. Indian Officials, such as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), keep seizing teas adulterated with artificial colorants and dyes. Tea dust and low-quality teas are adulterated by adding coal tar dyes, sunset yellow, tartrazine and other artificial colorants, some of them rendering the teas unfit for human consumption and endangering consumer health.

Resources

  1. Staff Reporter Coimbatore (August 29, 2019). “FSSAI seizes 1.5 tonnes of adulterated tea dust”. Retrieved from The Hindu.

More Sources

  1. “Beware! The tea you sip may be adulterated“. On Manorama.
  2. “Over four tonnes of adulterated tea dust seized; one arrested“. The Hindu.