India’s food regulator has moved against two of the country’s best-known spice names after laboratory tests found their compounded hing well below the legal standard.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) today issued a Prohibition of Sale order covering compounded hing, or compounded asafoetida, made by M/s Everest Food Products Private Limited and M/s Laljee Godhoo and Company (LG Brand Unit). The order is a preventive step, the regulator said, to protect consumers after legal samples from both firms were declared substandard.
The inquiry began with a consumer complaint about one brand. FSSAI then widened the net. Market surveillance covered major hing products on shop shelves. Primary lab reports pointed to Everest and LG. Officials next took legal samples from the companies’ centrally licensed units in Mumbai and, with the Gujarat State FDA, inspected Everest’s state-licensed unit at Umbergaon. Every legal sample of compounded hing from those operations failed.
Under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Additives) Regulations, 2011, compounded hing may be a blend of raw hing, gum arabic, starches and flours. The blend must still deliver a minimum 5% alcohol-soluble extract — the laboratory marker that enough raw hing has gone into the pack. Tested samples contained only 0–3%. FSSAI said that points to 30–40% less raw hing than the standard requires.
At the LG unit in Mumbai, inspectors also sampled six varieties of raw hing sold alongside finished goods. Rules cap starch in raw hing at 1% and require at least 12% alcohol-soluble extract. All six LG raw hing lots contained 15–32% starch and were classified as substandard.
FSSAI has told both food business operators to file a detailed action plan showing how they will stop the shortfalls and produce compounded hing that meets the standard. The firms have also been advised to start a voluntary recall of non-compliant stock already in the market.
For households, the message is practical: check labels, watch for official recall notices, and treat “compounded hing” as a regulated blend, not a guarantee of full-strength raw asafoetida. The prohibition covers the named compounded hing lines from these two manufacturers; it is not a blanket ban on every product those companies sell.
The case is a reminder that even a kitchen essential can fail when the cheapest filler replaces the ingredient that gives hing its bite. FSSAI says the next move belongs to the companies — fix the formula, or stay off the shelf.
