An environment and health advocacy group has accused India’s apex
food regulatory authority of diluting the permissible levels of certain pesticides
in spices and culinary herbs by raising 10-fold their maximum residue limits (MRLs).

The Pesticide Action Network India, a non-government organisation, has described the order by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which
increased the MRLs of certain pesticides in spices and culinary herbs from
0.01mg per kg to 0.1mg per kg, as “shocking” and “unsubstantiated”.

“Higher MRLs will mean higher and faster impact on the health of individuals due to residues,” the Pesticide Action Network said in a letter to the FSSAI on April 22.

The organisation has urged the authority to “rescind” the order.

The FSSAI had in an April 8 order specified that in cases where pesticides are registered with the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC), the MRLs specified under Codex will apply. Codex is a set of international food standards published by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. If the pesticides are not registered with the CIBRC, then the MRL of 0.1mg per kg will apply to spices and culinary herbs, the order said.

The April 8 FSSAI order supersedes its August 30, 2022, order where it had set a “default MRL” of 0.01mg per kg for pesticides not registered with the CIBRC. The revised MRL is based on “scientific opinion” and follows “various representations” received by the FSSAI, the authority has said.

The Pesticide Action Network has asked the FSSAI to reveal from whom it had received the various representations and what and whose “scientific opinion” it had relied on to revise the MRLs upward. The higher MRLs may lead to increased pesticide load on consumers which in turn could raise the risk of the short-term and long-term adverse effects of pesticides, the network said.

The FSSAI’s April 8 order had said that until field trial data is available, the MRLs for spices are fixed on the basis of data generated under the Union agriculture ministry’s surveillance programme, called Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (MPRNL).

But the Pesticide Action Network said it was unclear what data the FSSAI had used to increase the MRLs 10-fold in spices and culinary herbs because the MPRNL scheme looks for pesticide residues mainly in vegetables.

“The FSSAI should be transparent on what data they have used to raise MRLs,” Narasimha Reddy Donthi, adviser and public policy expert with the Pesticide Action Network, told The Telegraph. “The MPRNL findings have not been available in the public domain since 2018-19 and we do not know of any MPRNL measurements of pesticide residues in spices and culinary herbs.”

“The rationale for a sweeping 0.1mg per kg limit on several pesticides is unclear. Our question is: on which specific pesticides will this limit apply? The correct scientific way to set MRLs would be to fix MRLs for specific pesticides on specific spices and herbs,” Donthi said.

A query sent by this newspaper to the FSSAI on Thursday seeking its perspective on the concerns raised by the Pesticides Action Network has not evoked a response.