Be Aware You Might be Bringing Cancer Home!

Note: The following Things are written as per the detailed analysis.

Yes, you heard it right.

I am going to share a detailed article that everyone should know and care about because it is none other than our daily essentials.

Recently, On 5th April 2024, Hong Kong’s Food Safety Centre issued the first notification. They named 3 spice mixes from MDH.

• Madras Curry Powder
• Curry Powder
• Sambhar Masala
• And a spice mix from Everest Fish Curry Masala

These contained dangerously high levels of ethylene oxide. Consuming this chemical has been directly linked to cancer.

In many countries, using it is completely banned. Singapore’s Food Agency conducted independent testing and found this in Everest’s Fish Curry Masala.

After the news spread Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Maldives have banned these spice mixes in their countries. Australia, New Zealand, and Nepal’s food agencies are testing these independently, soon they may be banned in these countries too.

But this isn’t the end of the story. When it was analyzed further, it was revealed that In the last 4 years, the European Union’s Food Safety Authorities have either banned or recalled more than 500 Indian products.

527 such products that contained ethylene oxide. Not only spice mixes, everything is included in this list. Nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, cereals, fruits, vegetables, flavours, ice cream, thickeners, and many more.

Check out the list of Products here;

Not only this, in the past 6 months, the spices and spice mixes exported by MDH to America, the US Customs authorities have sent back 31% of them. Citing that traces of Salmonella was found in them. This bacteria causes food poisoning. Diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and in severe cases, it can harm a person’s nervous system too.

Far from issuing warnings last month, the Modi government(India), increased the permissible pesticide levels by 10 times. The level of pesticide that is allowed to be present in food, was increased 10 times. They are playing with the lives of ~8 billion people. This isn’t about a few spice mixes. This is much more dangerous than it seems.

When Everest was asked the reason their products were declared unsafe, they said, That they had received the necessary clearances and approvals by the Spice Board.

Now who is responsible for this? The Company, The Government? But whoever is behind it, the Victim is the Common People like Us!

If you still understand the seriousness of this issue, come, let me tell you more about this chemical.

Ethylene Oxide. Its short form is EO or EtO. It is a byproduct of fossil fuels, and has numerous industrial uses. But the use which is relevant in this matter, is the fumigation of spices.

The word Fumigation means disinfecting or sterilising. K!lling the harmful micro-organisms and bacteria in food. Ethylene oxide is used as a gas. Because gas flows through the packaging materials very easily.

And it can be used in an easily and efficiently to disinfect things. This is a colourless gas so you won’t see it, but it is flammable. It can catch fire. This is useful in killing harmful bacteria like E-Coli and Salmonella.

It can also be used to get rid of fungus. But interestingly, this isn’t used during production. It is used only during the storage stage.

So if there’s high levels of ethylene oxide in the spices, the farmer growing the crops isn’t at fault. Rather, it is the company’s responsibility, that uses ethylene oxide during post-harvest treatment and before packaging. The problem arises during storage.

First of all, there’s Preconditioning, that checks the humidity, temperature, and pressure control. Then this gas is used for sterilisation, followed by gas evacuation and gas washing. The third process is known as Aeration. This is an important step. Because, in this step, this chemical is removed from the product.

Nitrogen injections and vacuum degassing are used to remove this gas. This is crucial because this step is the root of the problem. If the food is sterilised of EtO, but the aeration isn’t properly executed, the traces of this chemical would remain in the food. This can lead to the formation of other lethal chemical compositions. like 2-Chloroethanol, Ethylene Chlorodydrin, or Ethylene Glycol, these are the same lethal chemicals that were found in the cough syrups.

This is why International Agency for Research on Cancer, categorises ethylene oxide into Group 1 Carcinogen. They have 4 groups for classification.

• Group 1 lists the things that cause cancer in humans for sure.
• Group 2 lists things that probably give cancer to humans.
• Group 2B lists things that can cause cancer in people
• And the Group 3 carcinogens are non-classified.

So the things in Group 1 are the most dangerous

Despite all this, Everest’s director, Rajiv Shah claims that it is found only in 1 of their 60 products. The other spices are safe to consume.

On the other hand, MDH also claims that its products are safe and can be consumed. But do you know what, it isn’t about ethylene oxide only?

The MDH shipments that were rejected in America, were because of Salmonella. Ironically, it is used to kill bacteria like Salmonella. Some products have high levels of EtO, while some are contaminated by Salmonella.

US FDA revealed that between October 2022 and September 2023, 15% of MDH spices imported into America, were refused due to Salmonella. But over the next period, from October 2023 to the present day, the rate of rejection is at 31%.

In total, 11 shipments have been rejected, which contain spices, flavors, and salts by MDH. Here, 1 shipment doesn’t mean only one product, 1 shipment may refer to 1 carton, 1 truckload, or an entire shipping container.

According to the Outlook article, in January 2022, the US FDA conducted a physical investigation of MDH’s manufacturing plant in India. Back then the threat wasn’t this severe, but the FDA had noted that the plant lacked adequate sanitary and accommodation facilities.

The exact quote is that “the equipment and utensils at the plant were not designed or constructed to be properly cleaned or maintained to prevent contamination.”

This isn’t limited to MDH’s products. Between the Financial Years of 2020 and 2023, America rejected 786 shipments from India. A total of 3,925 human food export shipments were sent from India to the US. Of which 20% were rejected due to Salmonella.

Lastly, if you doubt the quality of any food item, you can get them tested at different laboratories. Overall, the more that you can try to promote organic food the better it would be. But the true solution to this lethal problem can come only through the government.

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References:

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/eu-found-cancer-causing-chemical-in-527-indian-items-check-full-list-here-2992629

https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/press/20240405_10919.html https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/spice-row-mdh-everest-spices-now-under-australia-food-safety-agencys-scanner-427576-2024-04-30

https://business.outlookindia.com/corporate/mdh-spice-contamination-31-of-shipments-denied-entry-by-us-customs

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/everest-refutes-reports-of-ban-in-singapore-hong-kong-over-cancer-causing-ingredient/articleshow/109509268.cms?from=mdr

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/industry-indias-troubled-spice-route-3491962/#:~:text=Just%20between%20October%202023%20and,of%20MDH's%20shipments%20were%20rejected.

Originally Published on Medium