Indian food, drugs 2nd on US refusal list

Even though India does not figure among the top trade partners of the United States, its food and medicines have attracted the second highest number of import refusals from the US.

With 1,610 cases of detention of food and medicine consignments at various US ports of entry during the last 11 months, the products of Indian origin received the second largest number of import refusal reports (IRRs). China was the only country with more IRRs. Chinese and Hong Kong companies together accounted for 1,882 IRRs during the period.

According to the monthly IRR data released by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the third country was Mexico with 1,388 products.

Interestingly, the foreign trade statistics of the US Census Bureau show China and Mexico as the second- and third-largest trade partners of the US, respectively. India is not even among the top 15 trading partners of the US.

The IRRs, generated from data collected by the USFDA's Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS), indicates that the import consignments appear to be non-compliant with the country's food and drug regulations.

Though the consignment is held back, the owner or consignee gets a chance to prove that the product can be admitted into the US. The rejection happens only if the consignee fails to prove that the product complies with all US laws and norms.

Of the 94 consignments that were detained at the US ports in November, over 70 were of processed or ready-to-eat food like biscuits and spices.

The reasons for rejections varied from non-approvals to doubtful quality and included "unsafe colour", "filthy", "no English nutritional label."

In case of medicines, the most common cause was product registration. Hundreds of Indian companies, including reputed biscuit manufacturers, snack-food makers and drug companies figure on the list.