ABSTRACT
Introduction It was a damp morning on June 10, 2003. e monsoon had arrived in Kerala a few days ago. Mr. C. J. Jose, a tall well-built man in his fties, the Chairman of the Spices Board of India (SBI), was in his spacious oce deeply engrossed in a le. It was 10 am. His phone started ringing. It was a call from the Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. e matter was of serious concern. e Secretary seemed to be worried and conveyed to him the following message. “Yesterday evening, the Ministry received a communication from the Charge d’Aaires, European Union (EU), regarding a noti-cation. It came via the existing Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the EU. e notication stated that French scientists have detected traces of Sudan 1, a banned carcinogenic dye in a British food product in the last month. Further investigations revealed that the source of Sudan 1 was red chilli powder exported from India. e British rm had used it as an ingredient. e Ministry was requested to inform the competent authority in India of these ndings in order to help avoid such problems in the future. My oce will be sending a fax of the notication in an hour.” Closing the conversation, he said, “Considering the seriousness of the matter, the Ministry would like to be periodically apprised of the actions SBI would be taking in its capacity as the regulatory body for controlling and certifying the quality of spices exported out of India.”
