Food classification evidence must be reliable before customs confiscation; chicken sausages could not be treated as luncheon meat.

Imported chicken sausages could not be treated as luncheon meat for food-law purposes merely because test reports applied luncheon meat standards. The article notes that the goods were frozen, not hermetically sealed, and that no specific food standard for chicken sausages was shown, while BIS specifications existed for uncooked chicken sausages. In the absence of reliable evidence that the imported product fell within a different prohibited category, confiscation and penalty under customs law were not supportable. The operative point is that a product cannot be reclassified as a different regulated food item without a proper statutory or evidentiary basis.

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Issues: Whether imported chicken sausages could be treated as luncheon meat and, on that basis, be held prohibited under the food law so as to justify confiscation and penalty under the customs law.

Analysis: The imported goods were not packed in hermetically sealed containers and were required to be kept frozen, unlike luncheon meat. No specific standard for chicken sausages under the food law was shown, while the imported product had microbiological specifications under BIS standards for uncooked chicken sausages. The authorities relied on test reports referring to luncheon meat standards, but did not explain why those standards should govern chicken sausages or why the BIS specifications should be ignored. On the material available, the goods could not rationally be equated with luncheon meat merely because the plate count exceeded the standard for that different product.

Conclusion: The import was not shown to be prohibited under the food law, and the customs provisions for confiscation and penalty were inapplicable.

Final Conclusion: The confiscation and penalty orders could not be sustained, and the importer succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where no specific statutory standard exists for the imported food item, it cannot be classified as a different regulated food product and subjected to prohibition or customs confiscation unless reliable evidence supports that classification.

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