US FDA flags Hyd exporter’s rice shipments over pesticide residue concerns | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: White rice exported by a Hyderabad-based firm has come under scrutiny in the United States after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) placed specified products linked to the company on its pesticide-related import alert list, enabling authorities to detain the consignments without physical examination at US ports of entry.City-based Canvas Ventures was added to the ‘Red List’ under the India section of FDA Import Alert 99-08 on Sept 15. The alert pertains to processed food products that appear to contain unsafe pesticide residues. FDA records specifically identify chlorpyrifos as the pesticide associated with the listed rice products.FDA records list Canvas Ventures at Raghavendra Colony, Kondapur, and another address in Secunderabad.The entries cover two product categories: Processed and packaged jasmine rice and processed packaged rice. Both are described as ‘white rice’, with chlorpyrifos identified as the pesticide of concern.Placement on the Red List permits FDA officers to detain the specified rice products without physical examination when they are offered for entry into the United States. The express identification of chlorpyrifos in the product entries links the detention action to pesticide residue concerns.The public record, however, does not disclose the brand name, batch or lot number, quantity involved, US importer, port of entry or sampling date. It also does not state the concentration of chlorpyrifos detected.The entries do not establish whether Canvas Ventures grew or milled the rice or only exported it. Nor do they provide a basis to conclude that all rice handled by the company was contaminated.The action is therefore limited to the white rice products identified in the FDA listing and their placement under the pesticide-residue detention regime.