Mayonnaise, cotton candy, gobi manchurian: India cracks down on unsafe ingredients in street food

NEW DELHI – It is a much-loved dip served with dumplings and shawarmas. But mayonnaise made from raw eggs has caught attention in India in recent months for the wrong reasons, highlighting India’s wider street food safety problems.

The southern state of Telangana banned the dip on Oct 30 for one year – outlawing its production, storage and sale – after a spate of food poisoning incidents, including one death, was linked to it.

A 31-year-old woman who ate momos, or dumplings, served with the dip from a street food vendor in Hyderabad died after experiencing severe food poisoning symptoms. Raw egg-based mayonnaise is known to carry a risk of salmonella infection if not prepared or stored properly.

Telangana’s decision follows that of Kerala, a southern coastal state, which banned the dip in 2023.

But mayonnaise is not the only thing under scrutiny in recent months. Another much-loved food – cotton candy – was banned by several states in 2024, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, turning the spotlight on the addition of harmful artificial colours in food items.

This ban on cotton candy was instituted because of the unauthorised use of Rhodamine-B, a carcinogenic colouring agent that gives the candy its trademark fluorescent pink-to-red hue.

The colouring agent, which is used legally for textiles and inks, is often diverted to the food industry because of its cheap cost and the industry’s poor awareness about its harm. Its use in food items is not permitted by India’s top food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Prolonged consumption of Rhodamine-B can cause liver dysfunction or cancer and, when ingested in large amounts over a short period, it can result in acute poisoning.

The colouring agent was also banned by the southern state of Karnataka in March after the food authorities found it was widely used not only for cotton candy, but also for gobi manchurian, a popular Indian-Chinese dish made with cauliflower.

Other food items that have caused safety concerns in recent months include kebabs and pani puri (dough shells stuffed with a potato filling and spices), samples of which were found to have unsafe artificial colours.

For 42-year-old Kavya Chandrasekhar, an educator based in the state’s capital Bengaluru, the news about cotton candy confirmed her longstanding fears about the “glaring pink candy”, something she has steadfastly kept her eight-year-old daughter away from. “I always had my doubts,” she told The Straits Times.

Eating street food like pani puri has also often left her feeling knackered with an upset stomach and vomiting.“As much as my heart wants to eat it, I’ve realised that sometimes it just doesn’t work well for my system,” said Ms Chandrasekhar, who now eats her favourite snacks in restaurants that have better food safety standards.

The recent incidents have prompted calls for strengthening regulatory as well as awareness-building measures to address the safety of street food in India.

Ms Sangeeta Singh, who heads the street food programme at the National Association of Street Vendors of India, said the government must boost its efforts to develop awareness among street food vendors, who number around 10 million nationwide. Most of them are either illiterate or have limited education, posing a challenge to effective communication.

“Awareness has not been fully developed, which is why they do not know that this (Rhodamine B) is harmful,” she told ST.

“(Once they understand the dangers), why will they use it? Why will they harm their customer base deliberately?”

Since 2017, FSSAI has been running a Food Safety and Certification training programme, attended by more than 1.8 million street food vendors so far. While the food authorities in various states also have their own initiatives, Ms Singh said there are concerns that these programmes are focused more on “ramping up the numbers” of trained vendors.

Mr Pawan Agarwal, a former FSSAI chief executive, told ST that India has a robust food safety training and certification system, but it is unreasonable to expect poorly educated street food vendors to be well versed with all the rules and regulations.

What the state food authorities can do is to prepare small booklets with information tailored for street vendors and use them in training sessions. “In the case of big food businesses, you can use a strict policing method, but in the case of street vendors, you have to use more of a capacity-building approach.”

Mr Manoj Kumar Chauhan, 25, is a street vendor in Shimla, capital of the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where he has been selling vegetarian momos and various egg dishes from his cart for three years. He participated in a two-day FSSAI food safety training programme in October that he found useful.

Besides an emphasis on maintaining hygiene, participants were told not to add any artificial colouring to their food as it harms consumers’ health. “We were told that whatever is freshly prepared with our hands is best,” Mr Chauhan said, recommending that follow-up sessions be organised to keep vendors aware of evolving food safety threats.

While FSSAI serves as the country’s overarching food regulator, much of the responsibility for food safety enforcement, particularly with street vendors, falls on the state food authorities. However, many of these state agencies lack the resources to appoint the necessary manpower.

India has a significant dearth of food safety officers – foot soldiers responsible for inspections and sample collections. The country had just 2,574 such officers in 2022, much fewer than the 17,003 needed. In 12 states, the shortfall of such officers was as high as 90 per cent.

The country also has a shortage of trusted food-testing laboratories. In 2023, there were about 250 such recognised facilities, most of which were in the bigger and richer states.

Noting that Indian food regulations are on a par with international standards, Ms Chinmayee Deulgaonkar, an empanelled food safety trainer with FSSAI, said inadequate resources in terms of manpower and infrastructure had limited the enforcement of these regulations.

“Enforcement is happening, but additional resources are needed for a large country like India,” she told ST.

Consumer awareness must also be developed, including through better media reporting and social media outreach, according to Ms Deulgaonkar.

In 2018, FSSAI banned the use of newspapers to pack and serve food, especially deep-fried items. This is because printing ink may contain chemicals, including lead and heavy metals, that can be absorbed into the food. Consuming these chemicals over time can lead to serious health risks.

But vendors in many parts of India still serve food in newspapers, a practice consumers have not challenged because of their lack of awareness.

“The moment consumers say that this is not acceptable to them, vendors are bound to change,” added Ms Deulgaonkar.