India’s apex food regulator has no data on presence of GMOs in fresh produce imported over past 5 years

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s nodal food regulatory body, does not know if the fresh food produce imported in the past five years included genetically modified (GM) varieties. Neither does FSSAI have information on tests undertaken to check for the presence of such varieties. These are the findings of a Right To Information (RTI) investigation by Down To Earth (DTE). This raises questions whether the fruit and vegetables sold currently in the country — at supermarkets and by roadside vendors — are free of GM varieties or not.

When a new variety of plant is created by inserting in it the genes of another plant, organism or bacteria, the variety becomes a genetically modified organism (GMO). Since there is not enough data or research on the long-term impacts of GMO on human health, there is no unanimity in the scientific community on their regular consumption.

Globally, about a dozen GMO species are being farmed on a large scale. Some 28 countries allow large-scale farming of these GMO crops, states a 2015 report by The Royal Society, a London-based fellowship of scientists and the world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. In India, the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, prohibits import, manufacture, use or sale of GM food without FSSAI’s approval. So far, the country has allowed cultivation and import of only one GMO — cotton, a non-food crop. In 2022, India also allowed commercial cultivation of GM mustard, but the move has been challenged and is pending at the Supreme Court.

To assess the system for testing the presence of GMO varieties in the produce imported in the country, dte filed four rti applications with FSSAI between February and September this year, asking (i) Do fresh fruit and vegetables imported to India include GM varieties; (ii) Have any tests been done to confirm the presence of GMOs in fruit and vegetables imported in the last five years under Food Safety and Standards (Import) Regulations, 2017; (iii) If fresh fruit and vegetables imported into India have been tested for GM, can a summary report be provided; and (iv) List of exotic fruit and vegetables being imported to India, with the name of the exporting country.

In response to the first query, FSSAI said: “Notification of regulations for GM foods is pending and to ensure only non GM crops are imported into the county, an Order dated 21.08.2020 and subsequent Orders have been issued regarding Requirement of non GM cum GM Free certificate accompanied with imported food consignments [sic].”

The order that FSSAI refers to in the reply is the first of the three that it has passed to regulate import of GMO in 2020-2021. dte’s analysis of the three orders depicts a gradual dilution of FSSAI’s stand on the import of GM varieties. Sample these. The August 21, 2020, order was categorical and sought “to ensure that only Non GM food crops are imported into India”. It mandated that a non-GM-cum-GM-free certificate, issued by the exporting country’s “Competent National Authority” shall accompany every consignment of 24 food crops — alfalfa, apple, Argentina canola, egg plant, bean, chicory, cowpea, flax seed, maize, melon, papaya, pineapple, plum, Polish canola, potato, rice, safflower, soybean, squash, sugar beet, sugarcane, sweet pepper, tomato and wheat. These are either crops whose GM varieties are under cultivation or subject of research, or constitute India’s major food imports.

However, the second order, dated February 8, 2021, permitted a “tolerance limit for adventitious presence” of GMOs in imported food crops at 1 per cent. Experts say this limit is too high. After this FSSAI order, Coalition for a GM-Free India, a platform of organisations and individuals representing farmers, consumers, experts and activists, wrote a letter to the Union health minister, saying that laboratories in the country can test GMO presence of even 0.01 per cent, which should be the acceptable limit.

The third order of February 24, 2021, brought down the requirement of non-GM-cum-GM-free certificate from the exporting country’s “Competent National Authority” to “authorised regional government authorities”.

Other responses

FSSAI’s responses to the other rti queries were either “Required information is not available in this division” or “No such information is available in this division”. The responses are worrisome because there has been a significant increase in India’s fruit and vegetable imports, especially from nations that produce GMO varieties. The US, Brazil and Argentina are the top three countries in terms of land under GMO cultivation, as per The Royal Society. They are also major exporters of foods to India. In 2018-2022, the US exported apples worth over Rs 1,811 crore to India. This is 17 per cent of the total apple imported by India in the period.

Argentina and Brazil are India’s top two sources of degummed soyabean oil in 2022-23. Overall, the import of fresh fruit and vegetables in India has increased by 25 per cent in the past decade, as per the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Monitoring Woes

Suman Sahai, founder-chairperson of Gene Campaign, a Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation, tells dte that India has no monitoring, surveillance or mechanism to ensure that genetically modified crops are not imported into the country. “We lack trained humanpower to collect samples and test for GM products at the entry points of import,” says Sahai.

Nor does the country have adequate infrastructure to test for GMOs. On February 18, 2019, Yes Bank’s Food and Agribusiness Strategic Advisory and Research group released “Metastudy on Food Testing Laboratories in India”, which says that only 2 per cent of food-testing laboratories in India can check for presence of GM products.  

Kavitha Kuruganti, founder of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an organisation working to improve agricultural livelihoods, tells dte that one solution to the problem could be to give import preference to nations that do not cultivate GMO varieties. She also says that even consignments that have non-GMO certificates should be tested.

As countries continue to develop GMOs, the issue is likely to become more severe. A GM variety of banana, for instance, has been developed in Australia, and awaits approval for commercial cultivation. The list of GMOs could soon become quite long.