7 December, 2007 – The EU team that scrutinised Indian plants in October is believed to have urged that companies should instigate separate production lines for industrial and food grade guar gum.
Some small exporters in India are thought to use the same facilities for the manufacture of both food and industrial grade guar gum. Implementing the recommendation would see costs for producers increase, analysts have said.
The recommendation is believed to be contained in the draft report which was submitted to the European Commission at the end of last month, after the Indian authorities were asked to comment on its findings.
But media sources reported earlier this week that India guar gum futures had fallen following speculation over the content of the draft document.
The EC said it was unable to comment to FLEXNEWS as the report was still under consideration.
An EU inspection team spent 10 days visiting various guar gum factories in India in the autumn. The probe followed the discovery of dioxin contaminated guar gum imported from India Glycols by Swiss firm Unipektin AG in July.
The incident sparked a Europe-wide alert that saw 16 of the EU’s 27 countries issue guar gum recalls.