India’s food safety regulator has issued prohibition orders against Everest Food Products and Laljee Godhoo and Company, barring the sale of certain compounded asafoetida and hing powder products after laboratory analysis found the samples failed to meet prescribed alcohol-soluble extract requirements, a key benchmark for detecting adulteration in the spice.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) directed both companies to halt sales of the affected products and to initiate recalls. Orders of this nature are legally enforceable under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and non-compliance can trigger further penalties, including license suspension, fines, and potential prosecution of company officials under the Act’s penal provisions.
What Happened
According to the regulator’s order, samples of branded compounded asafoetida and hing powder sold by Everest Food Products and Laljee Godhoo and Company were drawn and tested in FSSAI-recognised laboratories. The samples were found to be non-compliant with the alcohol-soluble extract parameter specified in the relevant food safety standard for compounded asafoetida. The regulator has prohibited the manufacture, storage, distribution, and sale of the implicated product variants and has called on the companies to recall stock already in the market.
The prohibition is product-specific rather than company-wide, meaning the firms can continue to sell other spices and food items in their portfolio, provided those items have not been flagged in separate proceedings. FSSAI has, however, reserved the right to escalate the action if recalls are not carried out or if further violations come to light.
Why It Matters
The action is significant for three reasons. First, Everest and Laljee Godhoo are among the most recognisable names in India’s branded spice trade, and the affected product, hing, is a kitchen staple across large parts of the country, particularly in vegetarian and sattvic cooking where its pungent aroma is used as a substitute for onion and garlic. A regulatory prohibition against top-selling brands of the spice carries direct implications for household consumers and for the food service sector.
Second, the latest action follows earlier regulatory findings against Everest Food Products over quality violations in other masala products. The recurrence of quality issues at a major branded spice company raises questions about the effectiveness of internal quality controls at large-scale spice manufacturers and the adequacy of state-level and central regulatory oversight of the country’s branded spice sector.
Third, compounded asafoetida has long been regarded by FSSAI and by independent food safety researchers as one of the most vulnerable spices to adulteration, owing to the high cost of imported raw resin and the relative ease with which cheaper extenders can be substituted. A failure on the alcohol-soluble extract test, the standard laboratory marker for such adulteration, is therefore treated as a serious compliance breach.
Background and Context
Compounded asafoetida, commonly known as hing, is a resin-based spice derived from the Ferula plant, which grows primarily in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. India is one of the world’s largest consumers of the spice but produces very little raw resin domestically. Because authentic asafoetida resin is expensive and largely imported, compounded formulations marketed in India typically combine a small proportion of resin with edible starches, gum arabic, or other permitted extenders. When the proportion of true resin falls below the level required by the standard, or when unpermitted extenders are used, the product is classified as adulterated or non-compliant.
The alcohol-soluble extract test is the standard laboratory method for assessing this parameter, because authentic asafoetida resin dissolves in alcohol while common starch-based adulterants leave an insoluble residue. A low alcohol-soluble extract value is therefore treated as direct evidence that a sample contains less genuine resin than the standard requires.
India’s branded spice industry has been the focus of repeated regulatory action in recent years. FSSAI’s nationwide surveillance and enforcement drives have flagged quality issues across a range of products, from turmeric and chilli powder to coriander and cumin. The Everest brand, in particular, has faced prior regulatory scrutiny, with earlier orders covering separate masala product lines. Laljee Godhoo, a Mumbai-based firm with a long presence in the Indian spice trade, has similarly been subject to food safety proceedings in the past.
The legal framework for the current action rests on the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which empowers FSSAI and state food safety commissioners to draw samples, test them against prescribed standards, and issue prohibition orders, recalls, and penalties where non-compliance is established. The Act also provides for adjudications and, in serious cases, imprisonment of responsible company officials, though such outcomes are rare in practice.
Analysis:
The FSSAI’s enforcement action highlights a recurring pattern in India’s branded spice industry, where periodic surveillance testing has repeatedly surfaced quality failures at companies with substantial market presence. For consumers, the orders underscore the practical value of regulatory testing as a check on adulteration that is difficult to detect at the point of purchase, since visual and sensory inspection cannot reliably distinguish authentic compounded asafoetida from substandard versions. For the industry, repeated violations at a single firm point to potential gaps between batch-level laboratory testing and the broader quality assurance systems meant to prevent adulterated products from reaching retail shelves. Whether the prohibition leads to structural reform at the affected companies, or remains an isolated enforcement event, will depend on the completeness of the mandated recalls, the outcome of any follow-up inspections, and the scale of any penalties imposed. The action also carries reputational implications: in a category where brand trust is a primary purchase driver, a public prohibition order can affect shelf placements and consumer demand well beyond the duration of any formal recall.
What to Watch Next
Several developments are likely to shape the next phase of this story. Consumers and trade buyers should expect the companies to publish or communicate details of the recall, including batch numbers and best-before dates of the affected stock. FSSAI may publish updated test results if additional product variants are sampled and found non-compliant. State food safety authorities in Maharashtra and in other states where the brands have significant distribution are likely to carry out follow-up inspections, and any further non-compliance could result in escalated action, including license suspension. Industry observers will also be watching for whether the affected firms file any appeal before the designated food safety appellate tribunal, a route available to companies that contest the regulator’s findings.
Conclusion
The FSSAI’s prohibition order against Everest Food Products and Laljee Godhoo and Company is a reminder that even the most familiar names in India’s branded spice trade remain subject to regulatory scrutiny, and that the country’s food safety framework, though imperfect, is capable of producing tangible enforcement outcomes in the case of repeated violations. For consumers, the immediate practical step is to check whether existing stocks of the affected hing variants fall within the batches named in the recall. For the regulator and the industry, the deeper question is whether the action prompts a wider review of how compounded asafoetida is sourced, tested, and quality-controlled across the supply chain, or whether it remains a one-off enforcement event in a sector that has historically struggled to keep adulterated product off the shelf.
Sources
Times of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/fssai-bans-everest-lg-from-selling-hing/articleshow/133619574.cms
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Story synopsis gathered from: Times of India – Top Stories — source
