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Journalism of Courage
New Delhi, Apr 16: The government has warded off a threat by the European Union EU to suspend imports of peanuts from India for quot;aflatoxinquot; contamination by introducing compulsory pre-qualification certification for exports of the commodity, a senior commerce ministry official said.
quot;The EU had asked us to set up a system to check the quality of peanut exports by December 31, 1998. We have asked peanut exporters to register their contracts with APEDA Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority along with pre-shipment quality certificates,quot; SM Acharya, joint secretary in the commerce ministry said. Aflatoxin is a micro-organism which makes the nuts powdery and some of the peanut consignments were found to have a high aflatoxin content.
The measures to suspend imports of any foodstuff are taken on grounds of food safety. The European Commission EC has stipulated the permitted levels of toxic micro-organisms in foodstuff. In addition to peanuts, India8217;s spices exports have also come under threat due to high presence of pesticide residue. Commerce secretary PP Prabhu told a national conference on agriculture for kharif campaign last month that the issue of pesticide residue was worrying government as trade partners like EU had threatened to ban such imports. Acharya said the Spices Board had been asked to enlighten exporters about measures to reduce the pesticide residue. Any ban or suspension on grounds of food safety are permissible as per World Trade Organisation WTO norms if the decisionsare not taken arbitrarily.
