Ramesh Kumar Sharma

Aflatoxins in Indian food products

Hepatitis cases have been reported in India in the past due to consumption of food contaminated by some aflatoxin, a mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus and generally developed in food articles grown and/or stored in hot and moist environment. The main target organ of hepatic disease, caused by regular consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated foods, is liver which may suffer from jaundice and cancer in later stages. Milk is an ideal food for such patients provided it is free from aflatoxins. The Indian Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2011 enlists aflatoxins among crop contaminants and naturally occurring toxins. In the European Union, food regulation ascertains much lower values for maximum aflatoxin contents in food articles than that the Indian food low does. Indian food business operators seldom have to face consequences due to high aflatoxin contents, particularly in samples of exported goods, despite the fact that detoxification (removal of aflatoxins from foods) to some extent is possible.

Insecticides in Indian Food Products

The current usage of insecticides and pesticides in modern food industry and agriculture is surely evident in many industrialised countries such as India. Despite their use as crop protection chemicals, their toxic action has been remembered by environmentalists as well as food and agricultural scientists. Organic insecticides—mainly organochlorines, organophosphorus, carbamates and pyrethrins/pyrethroids—are extensively used for crop protection, but their limitation is correlated with safety consequences. Azadirachtin, the interesting natural insecticidal compound extracted from neem trees, may be a solution against environmental harms caused by synthetic insecticides and pesticides. Indian food business operators have to face consequences of the excessive use of insecticides in farms as rejections of export consignments. Countries possessing enough dense infrastructure, particularly European countries, are capable of keeping insecticide at minimum residue levels lower than India. Also for this reason, the Indian Country needs dense forestation.

Pesticides Detection and Detrimental Chemicals in Indian Farming. Reasons for EU Border Rejections

Indian food trade is facing the problem of detection of several undesired and detrimental chemicals in food articles with additional food scandals, while Europe is stepping forward to effectively act against planned adulterations. The reasonable follow-up of ethics for biosphere protection from detrimental chemicals and of forest policy is obviously needed in India. Humans, being integral part of biosphere, should consume the same kind of food and water and air which all the creatures do; this statement is the fundamental postulate of ‘Integral Humanism’. The control of global warming should require adequate monitoring actions of free-flowing water in rivers. Spacious water dams on mountains for hydroelectricity generation and elongated canals for irrigation contribute to stagnation of water with release of the lightest greenhouse gas. Therefore, regular check-up of farming effluents for dissolved oxygen, pathogens, heavy metals and pesticides—as per analytical protocols—and land reforms to contract agricultural and housing tracts and expand forest-pasture tract are essentially required in India.

Organic Foods and Farming Practices in India

Indian agriculture continued following path of green revolution even in the twentieth century extensively utilising intensive farming practices with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides application leading to micronutrient mineral deficiencies in soil, water and food. At the same time, many countries—mostly European Nations—used to leave the path of conventional or intensive agriculture. The diversion or deviation from intensive agricultural practices today implies minimisation or elimination of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides in farms with the concomitant use of natural manures, mainly compost manure, and natural pesticides like neem leaf juice. This concept of organic farming works a little in the state of deforestation or loss of biodiversity due to mineral deficiencies in soil and water, while in ancient India soil fertility was considered as the function of biodiverse forestation. Indian crops partly suffer from immune system weakness and are prone to bacterial and fungal growth. India is on the way of following integrated farming practices along with organic farming; however, India sometimes faces certain difficulties because of the high number of rejections at EU borders, mostly due to the presence of Salmonella spp. or aflatoxins beyond limits. Therefore, discussions on environmental factors and land use polity are relevant in India.

Botanical Ingredients and Herbs in India. Foods or Drugs

Botanical ingredients and herbs have been well known in India for both taste and cure aspects. Despite the fact that herbs and spices bear a toxin load in the forms of synthetic insecticides, fungi, microbial and allergens, the Indian therapy system ‘Ayurveda’ deals with herbal compositions for cure applications. Herbs and spices have been found to contain antimicrobial compounds. In detail, herbs with lower microbial load exhibit higher antimicrobial property and hence have food preservation concerns. Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, thyme, mustard and garlic are considered as food preservers and taste sources. Other spices such as long pepper, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and thyme are extensively used in Ayurvedic medicine. Dense forest infrastructure is required in India for an effective soil and water conservation with concern to the elimination or minimisation of synthetic insecticides and aflatoxins in botanical ingredients for culinary and medicinal reliability.

The RASFF: Legal Bases, Aims and Procedures for Notifications

This chapter provides a general overview of the current food policy in the European Union from the consumers’ viewpoint. It describes the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) approach on the legal level and with reference to notification procedures. In particular, the chapter explains the definition of original notifications—alerts, border rejection episodes and information ‘for follow-up’ and ‘for attention’—and non-original notifications. The history of RASFF, which had originally been introduced in 1979, is briefly reviewed on the basis of the historical evolution of Food Policy in the European Union and food scares.

Conclusions and the Future of the RASFF

This chapter offers an outlook on the future of the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) system and possible expectations. The influence of market needs on RASFF records is notable. In addition, the statistical study of RASFF documents (alerts and border rejection notifications above all) and the analysis of emerging trends may help the analysis of food safety risks in other ambits such as the new ‘Food Safety Modernization Act’ in the United States of America. In general, the scarcity of certain products in the RASFF area with the consequent and increasing need of imported materials seem to important factors when speaking of high-risk product categories and the correlated monitoring level. With concern to hazards, allergens and GMO appear as the ‘emerging’ hazard for the next years, while adulteration and fraud episodes appear to be recurrent menaces; as a result, a strict surveillance is required with the aim of overburdening the inspection capacity of official controls across the whole RASFF area.

EU Border Rejection Cases: Reasons and RASFF Notifications

This chapter contains a statistical evaluation of RASFF border rejection notifications. The study concerns the comparison between recorded notifications in two different temporal periods: the four-year 2008–2011 and the subsequent three-year 2012–2014 intervals. The analysis of product categories and hazard categories has been performed with the aim of defining the next ‘emerging concerns’ from the food safety viewpoint. Moreover, authors have analysed all calculated results with relation to a new risk classification (seven different risk typologies, including adulteration and fraud episodes, processing failures, allergens, and GMO). The comparison between alert and border rejection notifications has been also carried out and discussed in detail.

RASFF Alert and Information Notifications. A Statistical Review

This chapter contains a statistical evaluation of RASFF alert notifications in general. The study concerns the comparison between recorded alerts in two different temporal periods, the broad 1979–1990 and the four-year 2011–2014 intervals. The analysis of product categories and hazard categories has been performed with the aim of defining the next ‘emerging concerns’ by the food safety viewpoint. Moreover, authors have analysed all calculated results with relation to a new risk classification (seven different risk typologies, including adulteration, and fraud episodes, processing failures, allergens, and GMO). In addition, the chapter discusses chemical risks and contaminants, including also allergens.