The Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations, 2021.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on 14th October 2021 has published the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations, 2021 to further amend the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

The amendment is brought under regulation 2.4.6 which deals with standards for food grains in which a new clause 26 has been inserted as follows:

Basmati Rice shall be mature kernels of the varieties of Oryza sativa L. notified under the Seeds Act, 1966 (54 of 1966) as Basmati, which shall possess natural fragrance, characteristic of basmati rice both in raw and cooked forms and shall be free from artificial colouring, polishing agents and artificial fragrances.

The types of basmati rice and their standards have also been notified through this amendment.

Further under regulation 2.5 which deals with standards for meat and meat products, the definition for the term extenders’ and ‘binders has been defined.

Extenders: Extenders are non-meat substances with substantial protein content and are added to meat products to reduce formulation costs and provide certain functional properties related to product bind, texture and flavor. A common functional property of most extenders is water holding.

Binders: Binders are non-meat ingredients with the ability to hold and entrap fat and water to produce stable meat emulsion. Binders are primarily used to improve the water holding capacity of the product and also to improve the fat holding and emulsion stability.”

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