Sorry, we can’t sell gutka; have you tried pan masala—and chewing tobacco?

The Health and Family Welfare minister of India’s Karnataka state, U.T. Khader, has said that his government will explore what options it has to plug loopholes in regulations designed to prevent the consumption of certain oral tobaccos, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

Khader said he will be writing to the Union government on issues raised in respect of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations (FSSR), 2011.

The Bangalore Urban District Health Officer has also called for an amendment to the regulation banning the consumption of gutka.

The minister’s intervention follows checks carried out on retailers that discovered that sachets of pan masala and chewing tobacco, the ingredients of gutka, were being sold separately but alongside each other. Often, the pan masala and chewing tobacco were of the same brand.

The FSSR bans the sale of food items such as pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine, but there is no prohibition on selling either pan masala or chewing tobacco.