The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India vide its notification dated 26th November 2021 has issued Clarification regarding use of blend of oils intended for use in premixes/admixtures intended to be sold as intermediary ingredients.
Sub-regulation 2.2.1(24) FSS (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 specifies the standards for Multi Source Edible Oil wherein it is stated that Multi-Source Edible Oils’ means an admixture of any two edible vegetable oils where the proportion by weight of any edible vegetable oil used in the admixture shall be less than 20 per cent. The individual oils in the blend shall conform to the respective standards prescribed by these regulations.
Further provision 2.7 of Labelling and Packaging Regulations, states that “no person shall either by himself or by any servant or agent sell Any Multi Source Edible Vegetable Oil containing Mustard Oil manufactured on or after 8th June, 2021.”
However, through this notification, it has been clarified that the said restrictions are not applicable to a blend of edible oils intended to be used as an intermediate product (ingredient pre-mix) in the manufacture of other products by other food businesses in compliance with the following conditions:
- Such a blend of multiple edible oils shall not be sold in retail market and a clarification bya food business operator to this effect (such as ‘Not for retail sale’ / “For use as a pre-mix in formulating a product’) should be suitably identifiable with the product.
- Both the manufacturer and the user of such ingredient pre-mix shall maintain all records in respect of their inventory and produce the inventory records as and when sought by the Food Authority.
Further, it is clarified that such blends, since intended for intermediary use, shall be licensed under Category 99 (99.1).
