NEW DELHI – Like in most homes in India, Mr Vijay Ranjan’s kitchen is stocked with an array of spice powders indispensable for Indian cooking. These include turmeric, cumin, coriander and red chilli.

Also on his shelf is garam masala – a mix of ground spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns – often added as a finishing flourish to dishes.

These spices in Mr Ranjan’s home were often sourced from top-selling brands Everest, which is endorsed by big film stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, and MDH.

But recent revelations that some products by these two manufacturers contain unsafe levels of ethylene oxide – a fumigating agent used commonly on spices but also a known carcinogen – have shocked consumers such as Mr Ranjan, a 48-year-old lawyer who lives in Faridabad, a city near Delhi.

“We thought they were the only good brands available,” he said. “But now I am sceptical.”

In April, Hong Kong suspended sales of three spice mixes made by MDH and another by Everest after it found ethylene oxide in their samples during regular surveillance. Hong Kong has banned the sale of food containing ethylene oxide. Later that month, Singapore also recalled an Everest mix for fish curries, claiming its ethylene oxide content exceeded permissible limits.

Indian spices have since then also come under the scrutiny of the food safety authorities in countries such as the United States, Australia and Nepal, with the Maldives even banning the sale of Indian spices.

Everest has said that its spices are safe for consumption and its products are exported “only after receiving necessary clearances”, and MDH maintains that claims of its spices being contaminated with ethylene oxide are “untrue and lack any substantiating evidence”.

These revelations that Indian spice products allegedly contained the carcinogenic fumigating agent have prompted widespread concern among Indians over the safety of spices and other food items they consume.

It has also thrown into question the capability of India’s food safety regulatory system to check for harmful contamination.

Ethylene oxide is banned in food items under India’s food safety law.

As many as 62 per cent of those surveyed by LocalCircles.com, a community-based social media platform, said they had consumed MDH and Everest spices and were concerned by these contamination reports.

According to the survey released on April 25, 73 per cent of the 12,300-odd respondents also said that they had either “no confidence at all” or “low confidence” in the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) – the country’s top food regulator – when it comes to ensuring food safety for consumers.

These reports of harmful contamination in well-known Indian spice brands have also inflicted reputational damage to the country’s spice export trade, caused by the closer scrutiny of its products overseas and associated bans.

India is the world’s largest exporter of spices, with a 12 per cent share of global spice exports. Spices valued at US$4.25 billion (S$5.7 billion) were exported in the financial year ended March 2024, with Singapore receiving US$50 million worth of these products. China and the US were the top buyers of Indian spices that year.

A May 1 report from the Delhi-based think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative called for “urgent attention and action” to protect the credibility of Indian spices and said that if China and Asean countries impose import restrictions, this could pose a risk to more than half of India’s spice exports.

This latest episode is not a bolt from the blue for India’s agri-based industry, which relies on the heavy use of pesticides and other chemicals to boost production and whose exports often come under the scanner because of associated contamination.

In fact, a recent report in the Deccan Herald newspaper said that between September 2020 and April 2024, the food safety authorities in the European Union found ethylene oxide contamination in 527 products linked to India. The Spices Board, the government export promotion agency for Indian spices, had in 2021 released guidelines for exporters to prevent ethylene oxide contamination in consignments destined for the EU.

Reports of the fumigant’s persistent presence in Indian spices indicate the country’s poor regulatory mechanism to routinely check for such contamination.

“The laws of the land or basically the regulations are pretty much robust. They are pro-consumer health. But... implementation and enforcement (are) matters of concern,” said Mr Ashim Sanyal, chief executive and secretary of Consumer Voice, a Delhi-based consumer rights organisation.

He told The Straits Times that the EU detection of ethylene oxide in Indian exports should have “brought up the antennas” of FSSAI and stopped further contamination issues. “But it seems that they did not act on that warning and did not do any surveillance testing.”

FSSAI, which did not respond to questions from The Straits Times, conducts regular testing of food samples but activists have long said this is inadequate given the size of India’s market.

On May 2, the agency ordered nationwide testing and inspections at all companies making spice mixes, widening its crackdown that began after contamination reports emerged from Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mr Sanyal, however, described FSSAI’s action as a “reactive move rather than a proactive move”.

He said this latest setback should prompt the authorities to set up a robust system of sample collection, including by state-level food safety authorities, and testing. Companies which fall foul of the law should be “named and shamed” publicly on FSSAI’s website, he suggested.

Yet, in a move that attracted criticism, FSSAI in April relaxed the maximum residue limit (MRL) for certain pesticides in spices and culinary herbs from 0.01 mg per kg to 10 times higher, 0.1 mg per kg.

It said this decision was based on data from a national pesticide residue monitoring scheme.

However, this data has not been made public, noted Dr Narasimha Reddy Donthi, an adviser to Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India, a non-governmental environment and health advocacy group.

He added that he saw no “plausible justification” in the order.

“The only thing we can understand is most probably the industry has pressured them to revise the particular MRL,” he told ST.

In a letter to FSSAI on April 22, PAN India requested that FSSAl rescind this “shocking” order, saying this relaxation will have consequences for domestic food safety and cause Indian spices and spice-based products to “face more rejections” abroad.