Indian exports have again attracted adverse attention, with Hong Kong and Singapore imposing bans on a number of spices and condiments exported from the country as they contained high levels of cancer-causing pesticide residues. The banned items included products of well-known brands such as MDH and Everest. Indian exports have been detected to contain cancer-causing chemicals or materials otherwise harmful to health in the past, too. There are reports that ethylene oxide, the chemical whose presence was detected in Hong Kong and Singapore, was found in as many as 527 Indian items exported to the European Union (EU). They were not allowed to be sold in the EU countries. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has now decided to conduct quality checks on items to determine whether they contain dangerous chemicals. Why wasn’t this done in the past?