The Spices Board today hailed international food standard-setting body CAC's adoption of universal standards for pepper, cumin and thyme, saying it was a recognition of India's stellar role to forge a universal pact on identifying quality spices in various countries.
Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) decision was not only a recognition of India's role in benchmarking and harmonising global spices trade but it could also herald the entry of more spices and herbs in the list for universal trading of safe and quality spices, a board release said here.
Spices Board Chairman Dr A Jayathilak, who convened a meeting of the officials and delegates involved with the work and functioning of the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) here, said the historic decision of the CAC signalled the fact that spices had been included for the first time as commodities having universal standards. "This feat was achieved after India's relentless efforts to set up the CCSCH, which conducted its three sessions at Kochi (2014), Goa (2015) and Chennai (2017) to create a common standardisation process for global spices trade," he noted. He lauded the efforts of the officials and delegates for this major recognition of India's initiatives to forge a universal agreement on identifying quality spices in various countries.
Jayathilak said the Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme were adopted by consensus with an overwhelming support from the member-countries of the CAC. He countered the arguments of those delegations that were not in favour of the final adoption of these standards by presenting India's stand before the CAC. In the meeting at Kochi, he briefly traced the history of the CCSCH committee, which was the first new panel to be approved by Codex in the past 25 years, and outlined the strategic moves that convinced the member-countries to vote for approval of the new committee.
"This triumph of CCSCH is the harbinger of a lot of hard work ahead. The number of spices and culinary herbs is very large - although only 109 spices are notified in the ISO list, their actual number, as used in various countries, would be much higher," he said.
It was in 2013 that the need for Codex standards for spices and herbs became a matter of concern, owing to the increased level of issues in spice trade.
Historically, the developed countries, being the major importers of spices, have always insisted on unreasonably strict standards, which have had adverse effects on spice trade.
This was an issue that the Codex, jointly formed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), seeks to address, he added.
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