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Uday Dholakia Chairman of the National Asian Business Association has expressed serious concerns in the manner many of the fruit and vegetable imports for the British Asian communities are coming under stringent regulatory scrutiny.
Mr Dholakia has said “The European Commission issued a statement stating that since August 2011 a high proportion of consignments of paan leaves imported into the UK from India have tested positive for salmonella. Salmonella causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting. The EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) has said "continuous reports notified by UK have led to the setting up of reinforced checks for paan leaves from India. An important source of RASFF notifications on pathogens are fruits and vegetables," it said. "The main pathogen referred through RASFF is salmonella. The high reason for salmonella contamination since 2011 is paan leaves."
“The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) “said Uday Dholakia “has earlier issued a warning to consumers about the risk of salmonella food poisoning from paan leaves. The FSA has asked authorities at UK ports and airports to sample and test all consignments of paan leaves presented for import, especially those coming from India and Thailand”
Uday Dholakia, previously a Non-Executive Director of Local Better Regulation Office, part of the UK Government’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills said “during my tenure at LBRO, I facilitated a major research report on the Impacts of Regulation on Diverse Communitiesand actively highlighted the plight of British Asian importers. The research came in late and wasn’t up to our expectations, hence NABA has taken the lead in this partnership with the UK regulators”. NABA is now working with all the three political parties in the UK via Alok Sharma from the Conservatives, Seema Malhotra from the Labour Party and Zuffar Huq from the Lib-Dems.
Uday Dholakia todays called for three immediate actions:
1 “That the British Government recognise there is a serious food supply chain and security issues affecting the British Asian Businesses, consumers and manufactures-and request all the National Regulators to engage with NABA to develop forward plans for best practice. The Food Allergen legislation arriving in October 2014, the Food Labelling are two urgent challenges”
2 “That the new Prime Minister in India put better regulation for food and drink exports at the top of the political and administrative agenda to enhance the reputation of Indian exporters and support British importers and supply chain manufactures, the retailers, and ultimately the consumers”
3 “Via European Members of Parliament like the Midlands Neena Gill MEP open up a three way dialogues between the UK and EU regulators and NABA.”
“The potential ban on betel leaf “said Uday Dholakia “is also a spiritual setback for many British Asians who use the leaf as part of their worship”.
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