Citing a lab report by the United States, an activist on Tuesday said that premium brands of processed iodized salt sold in India allegedly contain alarming levels of poisonous and carcinogenic components like potassium ferrocyanide.
According to Shiv Shankar Gupta, Chairman of Godhum Grains & Farms Products, the test by the American West Analytical Laboratories has revealed that potassium ferrocyanide levels are an alarmingly high in Sambhar Refined Salt at 4.71 mg/kg, at 1.90 mg/kg in Tata Salt Lite, and 1.85 mg/kg in Tata Salt.
In spite of frequent attempts and emails, neither the Tata Group nor their official media teams responded on the matter.
Gupta, who has set up a mission “to rid salt of harmful substances, expose corrupt practices by the salt industry and help provide healthy and safe natural variants of salt to the masses”, said that no where in the world is the poisonous potassium ferrocyanide permitted for use in the edible salt industry or for that matter, in any other food item.
“Leading companies in the edible salt manufacturing industry simply repackage industrial waste laden with hazardous chemicals like iodine and cyanide and market it as packaged edible salt, making people vulnerable to diseases like cancer, hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, impotence, obesity, kidney failures, etc,” he told media.
He accused the companies of adapting “dangerous and undisclosed processes such as bleaching, adding a plethora of dangerous chemicals like iodine and cyanide to ‘refine’ the salt”.
Gupta alleged that the toxicant cyanide compounds are without constraint used by leading salt manufacturers in India, whereas iodine, which is already present in natural salt, is artificially added, virtually rendering the salt a poison.
He said that the country’s natural salt industry, which is spread across Gujarat’s Kutch, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, has been systematically destroyed by successive governments which hailed “iodized salt” as a healthy alternative.
“Declaring salt from these salt pans, which is naturally suited for human consumption, as inedible is one of the biggest scams in post-Independent India. This is one of the worst cases of corporate greed and corruption with the livelihood of workers in the indigenous salt industry at stake,” Gupta claimed.
Alleging a strong connection between the industrial lobbies and government to swindle workers of the indigenous salt industry while selling it at excessively high prices, leaving the consumers with no alternative but to buy cheaper, chemical-laced variants, he accused the government departments assigned with the task of ensuring quality standards in production of branded salt of being “inert”.
“RTI applications show that none of the big salt manufacturers have applied for testing or licensing with the FSSAI, which on its part has been unambiguous on how refined salt is produced. Moreover, food testing labs in the country are not equipped to measure the quantity of cyanide in salt,” he claimed.
-Sangam Sowmya
