Centre urged to make use of natural vanilla in ice-creams mandatory

Kochi, Jul 3 (UNI) The Vanilla India Producer Company Limited (Vanilco) has appealed to the Union Commerce Ministry to bring about a law to make it mandatory for companies manufacturing vanilla-flavoured ice-creams to use at least one per cent natural vanilla in their products.

The appeal was amde in a memorandum submitted to Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh by Mr Paul Jose, CEO and MD of Vanilco recently.

Mr Jose said that in the US, it was mandatory for ice-cream makers to use 10 per cent natural vanilla in their products to label them vanilla-flavoured.

In India, ice-cream makers use substitutes like synthetic vanillin, ethyl vanillin and cuamurine, which were harmful, he said.

The memorandum from Vanilco said that those who sell ice-creams using natural vanilla substitutes should label their products as such so that consumers are made aware of the contents of what they buy.

The memorandum also appealed to the Union Commerce Ministry to create a special fund from the excise duty levied on import of natural vanilla substitutes, for encouraging research and development in vanilla.

Around 650 tonnes of synthetic vanillin is imported into India from China alone. The bulk of these imports go into food products, including ice-creams. Amul and Milma, a major player in Kerala market, have begun switching over to the use of natural vanilla, Mr Jose said.

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