The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have prohibited the mixing of other vegetable oils with mustard oil from 1st October 2020, in order to ensure the safety in consumption of mustard oils in the country. Mustard oil is one of the few Indian cooking oils which are considered as healthy and good for heart health.
It is low in saturated fat content and rich in vitamins, vitamin D as well as vitamin E. Mustard Oil is recommended by many nutritionists, dietitians and even cardiologists for cooking, due to health-benefitting properties, including immunity-boosting, detoxifying and skin-improving qualities.
Till now, oil companies were permitted to mix 20 percent of other edible oils with mustard oil. But the recent hike in the prices of mustard oil enhanced speculation that mustard oil being sold could not be as pure as allowed by the food authorities. There was increasing concern amongst people using mustard oil for cooking regarding its dilution or mixing with other edible oils.
The decision was taken after a thorough investigation, being was carried out earlier this year. Nearly 4500 odd samples of edible oils were collected across the country for the investigation, and the samples included branded /unbranded oil manufacturing brands, and both national as well as local brands. In all, this move will be definitely seen as a key decision to ensure the purity of mustard oil, also keeping the manufacturing and sale of pure mustard oil (for domestic consumption), in public interest.
The completion of regulations and guidelines will take some time therefore the FSSAI has decided to operationalise the Draft Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Amendment Regulations, 2020 from 1st of October 2020.
The FSSAI stated in its recently issued order- “No manufacturing of blended edible vegetable oil with mustard oil as an ingredient will be allowed with effect from October 1, 2020”. As per the FSSAI guidelines, there will be a change in the composition of mustard oil used for domestic purposes. The newly published guidelines of the FSSAI shall forbid the sales of certain admixtures that fall under “any blended edible oil containing mustard oil.”
The FSSAI order also mentioned “The Government of India, after due deliberation has directed Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to prohibit blending in mustard oil and to facilitate manufacture and sale of pure mustard oil for domestic consumption in public interest.”
