With the recent government ban on foie gras in India, our food import and export guidelines have come under the scanner once again. While gourmands like us would argue that there are far more pressing food safety issues to worry about in our country, there are always two sides to every coin, so we give you a quick list of some controversial foods in India.
Genetically modified vegetables
Genetically modified vegetables in India are becoming a larger issue than you think. We are already grappling with pesticide and bacteria laced produce, but even two decades after GM crops were allowed globally, we haven’t conducted enough field research to okay large scale production. While BT Brinjal is the best known GM vegetable in India – Sugarbeet, Papaya, Squash, Soybean, Maize and Golden Rice are big GM crops abroad. The government has almost approved and then rolled back field testing with as many naysayers as pro GM produce exponents in our country.
Foie Gras
The duck or goose liver French delicacy is known for its delicately flavoured, rich taste. Usually eaten as a pâté or mousse, it has become a popular gourmet dish as well as a high-end ingredient used in signatures across eateries. Personally, we’ve gobbled up multiple rounds of the Foie Stuffed Galawat at Indian Accent, but it seems like we won’t be able to do that anymore. Animal rights activists have managed to get a ban imposed on foie gras because it involves forced feeding of birds to engorge their liver. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has now changed the import status of foie gras from ‘free’ to ‘prohibited’. India isn’t the first country to take this step though as Turkey, Israel, Denmark, Finland and Germany have already banned it.
Shark Fin Soup
Shark Fin Soup is not easy to find on our menus these days because its prices have gone up, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still being sold. Only recently, four distinct shark species whose fins are used as an ingredient in the soup have been marked as endangered or threatened. Eastern Atlantic and Eastern Pacific oceans are a hotbed of shark finning. The demand for shark fin, especially in China, has gone so high that the ocean ecosystem is said to be in danger due to the declining shark population. A very popular resto-bar in Delhi once used to list Shark Fin Soup as a must-have on their menu, but recent uproar has made them remove it from their list.
Caviar
Caviar is another controversial luxury dish that brings into question the point about ethical food. A Russian specialty of salt-cured fish-eggs of the Acipenseridae family, the term caviar usually refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian and Black Sea. Depending on the country, caviar may also be used to describe the roe of other fish such as salmon, steelhead trout, trout, lumpfish and whitefish. Eaten as a garnish or a spread, caviar is the ultimate luxury food and is still mostly found in expensive five star restaurants in India. It’s considered tainted food by many because of the practice of harvesting pregnant fish and throwing them back in the sea for the next season. In the past, USA has put Beluga caviar on the banned food list, though that directive has now been lifted, the EU is currently reviewing the same as well.
