food safety authorities have proved that the pulses getting imported in India from countries like Canada & Australia are seriously laced with toxic ingredients

Most Indians consider lunch/ dinner incomplete without a bowl of masoor or moong daal. Indians normally think of a steaming hot tadka laden daal as “comfort food” but reports say that this decision has to be rethought as it’s probable that some bad chemicals are being consumed along with that bowl of dal. National food authorities have conducted studies that reveal that pulses being imported in India from Australia and Canada are toxic as they come laden with chemicals.

The research was done by Food safety and standards authority of India or FSSAI that warned consumers against these daals as laboratory tests confirmed the presence of some toxic chemicals in them. There were herbicides like Glyphosate found in the daal. For reference this is a weed killer that’s commonly used by the farmer community. However FSSAI officers said that the herbicide Glyphosate ratio is very high in the pulses and consumer health can be ill affected after consuming it. MRL or maximum residue limits for Glyphosate is not specified in the FSSAI regulations and officials were asked to refer to the Codex standards or the Canadian standards for Herbicide.

The Canadian Food Inspection agency CFIA conducted tests on thousands of lentil samples that included the moong daal that was grown by Canadian farmers. A level of 282 parts per billion (PFB) were found and 1000 parts per Glyphosate was also found. These values are far above the safety limit and are a cause of deep concern.

The studies took place post an activist who raised concerns over lentil quality and found that the Indian diet has been over contaminated since last many years. The issue is that India lacks standard quality index that can detect glyphosate contamination and there is no strict quality control process. Millions of Indians have been eating the chemical laden daal till now and there are serious side effects to this.

Incidentally the Glyphosate herbicide was considered safe until some years back when WHO issued a strict advisory urging people to stop using it and terming it as a carcinogen. It’s said that this weed killer invades the protein functions of the body and attacks the immune system thus stopping the absorption of essential vitamins, nutrients and minerals. Glyphosate exposure is also linked to renal failure.