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12-18-2011
Eshan Diya
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: Dec 2011
: Kolkata
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Sell stevia and face legal action in india

SELL STEVIA AND FACE LEGAL ACTION IN INDIA

On 26 July 2011 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a notification clarifying that stevia is not a food item. Hence, one may face legal action if caught selling stevia in any form.
However it has been touted as a healthy, natural sweetener for diabetes and patients of phenylketonuria (genetic disorder). Stevia leaves contain stevioside, which is 300 times than sugar. It is non-fermentative and flavour-enhancing.
People of Paraguay have been using stevia for hundreds of years, while China has been using the sweetener commercially for the past two decades. None of them has reported any harmful side-effects—the human body metabolises the sweetening agents of stevia just like any other glycoside. The national health inspection authorities in China have approved stevia as a food additive, and in Australia, it is listed as therapeutic goods. In 2004, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION allowed using stevia as a food additive.
India is the Capital of Diabetes after China, hence needs to invest in stevia. An investment of Rs 1,50,000/- is required in the first including cost of drip irrigation and annual maintenance charge of Rs 30.000/-. Thereafter annual average net output on the lower side will be Rs 1,50,000/- per year.
Why only stevia is being targeted when so many other unapproved food items are available in the market?
Is it NOT clear case of the hand of the LOBBY backing aspartame, an approved artificial sweetener, behind the non- approval of stevia.Artificial sweeteners have been mired in controversy as some of them have been found to be carcinogenic. Director General of Prevention for Food Adulteration should come clear. They must provide a scientific basis for notifying that stevia is not a food item.