Basmati is a delicate plant and needs constant attention to
ensure a healthy crop. Being a tall plant with relatively
weak stems and light green droopy leaves it is prone to collapsing
and falling in the surrounding water thereby destroying
the seed or rice grain. Many farmers have undertaken
cross breeding programmes to develop hardier plants which give
higher yields yet claim to retain all the natural characteristics
of Basmati. This has been an ongoing process and has resulted
in a plethora of hybrid varieties being developed with varying
degrees of success.
For this reason and in order to protect the Basmati designation
against fraudulent misuse, a committee of experts have drawn up and
issued the Code of Practice on Basmati Rice which details the four
main 'pure line' Basmati varieties. The UK Rice Association,
of which Vikas Magoon, Veetee's Group Chief Executive was Chairman
at the time, was one of the leading contributors to this.
This document has been adopted by the Food Standards Agency and the
British Retail Consortium to form the basis of defining the
conditions of use of the term Basmati rice across EU member
states.
Scientific analytical methods have been developed to supplement
visual checks and to give an independent verifiable analysis of
basmati rice. The basis of the analytical methods is DNA
extraction and comparison to defined markers of known basmati
varieties.
At Veetee we are committed to preserving the integrity and
purity of this delicate grain. We check every batch of
basmati we receive to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice
and conduct regular DNA tests together with our own internal
stringent checks