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FSSAI notification with new standards under fruit, vegetable categories
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Friday, 23 March, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Shraddha Joshi, Mumbai
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FSSAI has notified the food standards and additives regulations, revising the existing and adding new standards relating to the fruit and vegetable categories. The apex regulator has instructed stakeholders to submit their comments and suggestions within a month’s time.
As per the draft, these standards have been proposed in context of harmonisation with those of Codex for better trade practices as well as to effectively regulate specified food commodities for their quality and safety. The draft standards shall be reviewed based on the comments received for stakeholders and revised, if necessary.
On one hand, new standards for date paste, fermented soybean paste, vegetable protein products, harissa (red hot pepper paste), quick frozen French fried potatoes, canned chestnuts and canned chestnut puree, edible fungus products and ginger (sonth/adrak) have been added.
And on the other, the existing standards for cocoa mass or cocoa/chocolate liquor, cocoa cake, thermally-processed fruit salad/cocktail/mix, cocoa powder, ginger (sonth/adrak) powder and tomato ketchup and tomato sauce have been revised.
Under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, in Regulation 2.3 relating to fruit and vegetable products, after Sub-regulation 2.3.55, Clauses 56 to 62 have been added.
Date paste
Date paste has been described as product prepared from fruits of the date palm (Phoenix) that are sound, consistent in colour and texture, harvested at the stage of maturity, washed, pitted and capped. It shall be soft and have no alteration in smell and flavour. No additives are allowed in the product.
Quick frozen French fried potatoes
Quick frozen French fried potatoes is the product prepared from clean, mature and sound tubers of the potato plant of the species Solanum tuberosum L and Solanum Andigena L.and rhizomes of the sweet potato of the species Ipomoeabatatas.
They shall fried in edible oil or fat prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products and Additives) Regulations, 2011. The product is subjected to a freezing process in appropriate equipment until its temperature has reached -18 degree C at the thermal centre after thermal stabilisation.
Commenting on the standards laid for frozen fried potatoes, Brajesh Singh, principal scientist and head, Central Potato Research Institute, and FSSAI expert, said, “Any amendments for quality control, be it from FSSAI or any other regulatory body is generally for defining the quality of product over all variations like weather, location and season.”
“As it is, there does not seem any ambiguity in terms of freezing temperature of the fries and also in its dimensions. However, the moisture content of the fries, given as 78 per cent after frying, are not convincing,” he added.
Singh said, “The potatoes used to prepare french fries are of good processing quality (having high dry matter of >20 per cent and low sugars <250mg/100g). In the process of making frozen French fries, potatoes are par-fried and then frozen, which means that part of moisture (about 80 per cent in raw potatoes) has already been reduced. In that case, the frozen French fries should not have a high moisture content of 78 per cent. Thus, this may be looked into before finalising the guidelines. The other parameters like fats, burns, etc. are fine.”
Fermented soybean paste
Fermented soybean paste has been described as a fermented food whose essential ingredient is soybean from which the trypsin inhibitor has been inactivated. The product is a paste type which has various physical properties such as semi-solid and partly retained shape of soybean. The basic ingredients should be soybean, salt, water and naturally-occurring or cultivated micro-organisms.
Harissa
Harissa is the preserved pulp of fresh red hot pepper of the Capsicum annuum variety, concentrated and preserved using thermal treatment only.
It shall contain fresh red hot peppers of the Capsicum annuum variety, fresh garlic, coriander, caraway and salt. The peppers used in the preparation shall be sufficiently ripe.
The taste and smell shall typically be spicy (hot), free from other foreign taste and free of crusts and seeds using a 2mm sieve.
Vegetable protein products
Vegetable protein products means the food products produced by the reduction or removal of the major non-protein constituents (water, oil, starch and other carbohydrates) from vegetable materials other than single-cell protein sources in a manner to achieve protein content of 40 per cent or more.
Carbohydrates including sugars, edible fats and oils covered under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products and Additives) Regulations, 2011, other protein products, vitamins and minerals, salt, herbs and spices may be added as optional ingredients.
Canned chestnuts and canned chestnut puree
Canned chestnuts are prepared from fresh, sound, mature chestnuts of varieties conforming to the characteristics of the species CastaneacrenataSieb et Zucc (Japanese chestnut) or Castanea sativa Miller (European chestnut), which shall be shelled and may be pellicled or unpellicled. It may contain salt in an amount not exceeding one per cent of the total net contents.
Canned chestnut puree is the product pureed by sieving or other mechanical means in order to obtain a fruit pulp from chestnuts. It may contain sugars to not more than two per cent of the total net contents.
Edible fungus products
Edible fungus products means products prepared from fresh edible fungi. The products may be dried edible fungi (including freeze-dried fungi, fungus grits and fungus powder), pickled fungi, salted fungi, fermented fungi, fungi in vegetable oils, quick frozen fungi, sterilised fungi, fungus extract, fungus concentrate and dried fungus concentrate.
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