The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has withdrawn its earlier order which had flagged safety concerns in dried oregano imported from Chile after receiving an alert from the International Food Safety Authority Network (INFOSAN).
It added that the recall process of dried oregano imported and distributed by Keya Foods Pvt Ltd in India stands terminated.
The food safety authority said it is withdrawing its order dated July 1, regarding an INFOSAN alert on detection of Salmonella in Sweden in imported dried oregano from Chile.
This is being done after further investigation revealed that Salmonella contamination was only detected in imported consignment in Sweden.
“The investigation of the case concluded that only consignment detected in Sweden was affected, due to an unusual summer rain in the Central Zone of Chile that affected the condiment in its drying stage. Therefore, there is no other consignment exported to other countries affected by this problem,” FSSAI’s order dated July 15,stated, citing an email received from INFOSAN.
FSSAI added that in view of these “emergent facts,” it has “been decided to withdraw the said order dated July 1, 2021 and any such recall process initiated pursuant to the said order stands terminated with immediate effect.”
Keya Foods had moved the Kerala High Court against the FSSAI order. On July 8, the Kerala High Court in an interim order had granted a stay on the recall of the dried oregano distributed by the company.
In its media clarification issued earlier, Keya Foods Pvt Ltd had stated that it has not received any Chilean oregano after November 2020 from Chile or Sweden.
In a statement, Keya Foods said, “FSSAI has withdrawn the product recall for Keya Oregano through its advisory on July 15, after thorough investigation of the issue along with Keya. FSSAI has confirmed that the contamination was restricted to the Swedish batch and no other consignments including Keya products were affected by this problem. All Keya products undergo multiple levels of rigorous quality checks and testing and are certified to be free of contamination by reputed food safety labs including Government labs."