No adverse impact of American chickenlegs on domestic industry, FSSAI has no info on impact on human health: Piyush Goyal

The government on Wednesday ruled out any reports on the adverse effect on the domestic poultry sector due to import of chicken legs from the US to India but said that the food safety regulator has no information available on the assessment of the impact of consumption of highly freezed chicken on the health of the people.

“No report of adverse effect on the domestic poultry sector including Namakal district in Tamil Nadu, due to import of chicken legs from the United States to India, has been received in the ministry,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

In the April-September period, chicken legs imports were $21,312 compared with $ 80,464 in the entire 2018-19.

Goyal said that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has prescribed standards for fresh or chilled or frozen poultry meat and the products complying with these standards are considered to be safe for human consumption.

“However, FSSAI has no information available on the assessment of the impact of consumption of highly freezed chicken on the health of the people,” he said.

For the import of Livestock products including chicken legs, a Sanitary Import Permit is required which has to be issued by Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. This Sanitary Import Permit includes Indian sanitary protocols which have to be certified by the official authorities of the exporting country before exporting the livestock products into India.

The import of these items are restricted by applying import duty. The current import duty on such items is 100% which is maximum rate available under India’s bound rates.

In a separate reply, Goyal said that India exported buffalo meat worth $1.9 billion in the April-October period compared with $3.6 billion in the entire 2018-19.

Source:- https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/food-services/no-adverse-impact-of-american-chickenlegs-on-domestic-industry-fssai-has-no-info-on-impact-on-human-health-piyush-goyal/72376684