The Hindu : Front Page : Karunanidhi puts proposal on hold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 12, 2007
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Karunanidhi puts proposal on hold

R.K. Radhakrishnan and S. Ramesh

It sought to condone high hydrogen cyanide content in sago

CHENNAI/SALEM: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has put on hold a proposal to condone high hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content in sago.

Tapioca, the raw material for manufacturing sago and starch, contains HCN, high levels of which are lethal. The skin contains 85 per cent HCN while the remaining is in the white starchy part.

Two years ago, Sagoserve, a Salem-based industrial co-operative society formed to provide marketing and warehousing facilities to producers, insisted that the HCN content in sago be brought down to below 1 ppm (parts per million). The Pollution Control Board limit for cyanides in effluent water is 0.2 ppm.

Agriculture Minister Veerapandi K. Arumugham, at a meeting on September 20, wanted Sagoserve to accept sago products with HCN content up to 2 ppm. He instructed Sagoserve to categorise them into three grades. Those with HCN level up to 2 ppm were to be rated as Grade A, 2 to 5 ppm Grade B and above 5 ppm, Grade C, according to an official note.

Small Industries Minister Pongalur Palanichamy did not attend the meeting. In a note later, he said sago manufacturers had agreed to withdraw a case filed in the High Court, and that Sagoserve would categorise tapioca sacks as Grade A, B and C. The HCN level content was not mentioned.

More than 4 lakh farmers and labourers in Salem and neighbouring districts are dependent on income from tapioca cultivation, say officials.

Manufacturers’ plea

Manufacturers urged the society to follow Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Rules, which state that the maximum permissible level of HCN in any food article is 5 ppm, and revise the maximum permissible level of HCN in sago.

They went on strike from September 1 but resumed operations a week later, following an assurance from the Government to study the issue. Officials say permissible limit of HCN under the PFA Act is applicable to only naturally occurring foods and not sago, a processed food.

In its report, the Food Laboratory of the King Institute said: “IS [Indian Standards] 1317 and 1318, which relate to edible tapioca chips and edible tapioca flour, are clear that HCN should be totally absent in these foods. Sago is a processed food with edible tapioca flour as an ingredient. When, as per IS standards, the raw material i.e. edible tapioca flour has to be free of HCN, the sago processed from the same has to be naturally free of HCN.”

This finding was confirmed by the Union Government’s Assistant Director General (PFA) who, in a letter in July to the Small Industries Secretary stated: “HCN is a naturally occurring toxin in tapioca which, if tested, may contain 5 ppm HCN (maximum). But its product, which is processed, shall be free of HCN… Bureau of Indian Standards specifications explicitly prescribe that sago, sago chips etc., shall be free from HCN.”

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