Sunday 16 June 2013

New Additives: FSSAI proposes amendment to FSS Act ( Food Products Standards & Additives Standards )

 Friday, June 14, 2013 08:00 IST 
Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi


The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified Draft Regulations to amend the FSS (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.

In the said Draft Regulations, certain food additives have been proposed to be used in certain food products / ingredients in the quantity specified for those food products / ingredients.

The food additives proposed in the Draft Regulations to be used in certain food products are as under:

Polydextrose @ GMP in “Carbonated and Non-Carbonated Beverages”

Methyl Cellulose
max. 3% in “Salad Dressing / Mayonnaise”;
max. 2% in “Biscuits”;
max. 2% in “Preserved Chapatis”;
max. 3% in “Cakes”

Carboxymethyl Cellulose
@ GMP in “Dressing and Sauces”;
@ GMP in “Chocolates”;
@ GMP in “Sauces”

Potassium Iodate
 - max. 50 mg / kg in “Bread”

Gellan gum @ GMP in “Sterilised and UHT dairy-based drinks.”

These additives were not in use for the said products earlier. But now the food authority has included these additives and invited objections or suggestions from the food and beverage industry on the use of these additives.

D V Malhan, executive secretary, All India Food Processors’ Association (AIFPA), told FnB News that the industry was looking into the draft amendment as it was recently made public. He added that these additives were there in the market but not allowed to be used for the said products.

“The authority must have done some study and documentation on the issue of these additives and we’d asked our members to comment on the issue. After getting comments we’ll discuss it and present suggestions before FSSAI,” he stated.

Meanwhile, FSSAI has also issued a clarification note as per suggestions received from various stakeholders and discussion during the meeting held on June 04, 2013, at FSSAI for issuing of state / central registration and licensing.

A revised table has been prepared clarifying the items covered under Central / state licensing & registration, and the earlier criteria of storage capacity have been replaced by ‘Annual Turnover.’

Dr D S Yadav, deputy director enforcement, stated that there were suggestions from the stakeholders that the earlier criteria were a bit confusing because it set different benchmarks on storage capacity and annual turnover.

“So therefore, the food authority has decided to replace the storage capacity by annual turnover for the food business operators and rest of the criteria remains unchanged,” said Dr Yadav.

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