HEALTH-INDIA: Worms-in-Chocolates Episode Makes Consumers Wary

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 2003 (IPS) - Alarmed by news of worms crawling out of chocolate bars, pesticide-spiked softdrinks and spurious drugs, Indians are beginning to take a closer look at what they are being served up.

Increasingly, blame is being laid at the government’s door for lax laws that allow large transnational corporations with some of the best-known brand names to get away with less than satisfactory quality controls and maximise profit margins.

This week, it was the turn of Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer, to answer charges that far-removed from the smart, aluminium-foil packaging and slick advertising that the company employs, its products in western Maharashtra state were discovered to be crawling with worms.

The chief of Cadbury’s India operations, Bharat Puri, said that his company maintained the highest production standards but acknowledged that it was impossible to monitor the millions of retail outlets in the country.

Puri’s protests have not impressed the authorities of Food and Drugs Administration, who lost little time in moving to prosecute Cadbury, a major international brand name.

Already the government is already under fire for appearing to be protecting the interests of the manufacturers of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, after a leading environmental agency publicly accused them last month of using pesticide-ridden water for bottling.

But perhaps the most meaningful step ever taken by the government in protecting the citizenry from exposure to substandard processed food and drugs was to seek World Bank support and sign up for a ‘Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project’.

Backed by 54 million U.S. dollars worth of credit, the project, according Michael Carter, the Bank’s country director, would be ”the first stage of a long-run programme supporting the Government of India’s vision of ensuring safe and high quality food and drugs for the Indian public.”

Carter told IPS that the project would benefit society at large but would be particularly helpful to the poor, who suffered from higher levels of morbidity and mortality arising from consuming substandard foods and drugs.

The Bank noted that there were large disparities not only between the poor and non-poor but also between regions within the country, adding that these continued to widen.

Overseeing food and drugs production and distribution was an essential public health function, Carter said, but added that inadequate institutional arrangements and limited financial resources prevented the Indian government from fulfilling its due role.

India has a large and rapidly expanding food and drugs industry, while pharmaceuticals are already a big and growing component of health care expenditure.

Consumption of street foods as well as processed foods is also on the rise, as is the concern for consumer protection, particularly for the poor.

”The poor would especially benefit from the project because they are more likely to be victims of poor quality foods and low access to medication,” said G N V Ramana, a senior public health specialist who works for the World Bank.

He cited recent household surveys that indicated that the incidence of diarrhoea in children under five was 20 percent higher for the poorest quintile of the billion plus population as compared to the highest quintile.

”The true difference is probably greater, since poor households tend to under-report illnesses,” Ramana said.

The project will focus on policy development and improving monitoring facilities, as well as the conduct of household surveys to assess public perceptions and knowledge about the quality of and safety of foods and drugs.

Attempts will be made to educate consumers on matters related to food safety and finance the purchase of equipment, laboratory supplies, training and the contracting of non-governmental organisations and media agencies.

Consumer groups have welcomed the new initiative as long overdue given the low levels of public awareness regarding food safety norms in India and ineffective regulation.

Consumer Voice, a leading consumer group, has pointed out that the occurrence of worms in chocolates could have been avoided if Cadbury’s had printed specific instructions on its labels regarding storage of its chocolates.

In most parts of India, temperatures reach 45 degrees Celsius during the summer months, but chocolates are either stored unrefrigerated or kept in ordinary refrigerators that do not control moisture levels.

An independent survey carried out by Consumer Voice showed that chocolates were often allowed to melt during transportation. This means that consumers end up eating refrozen chocolates that lack the original taste and flavour, and may have been exposed to weevils while in transit.

”Most chocolate brands also do not reveal nutritional information on their labels because this is not yet mandatory in this country,” said Roopa Vajpeyi, honourary secretary to Consumer Voice.

Vajpeyi said she was also concerned that there were no specific law that relates to children and foods targeted at growing young people, whose nutritional needs were sensitive.