FOOD AND HEALTH ESSENTIALS

India establishes general standards for milk, milk products

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has formally established broader standards applicable to milk and other dairy products, in an effort to more closely align India’s requirements with those of other countries.

Recently published in the Gazette of India, the new standards fall under India’s Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Regulations, 2011. They include FSS (Prohibition and Restrictions on sales) Amendment Regulations, 2017, regarding certain provisions regarding the sale of cream, and FSS (Food products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations, 2017, regarding revised standards for milk and milk products.

The new standards:

• Redefine milk and milk products in a more comprehensive manner to cover all conventional and non-conventional milk products;
• Introduce new standards applicable to a variety of milk products, including camel milk, dairy whitener, edible lactose and fermented milk drinks. The new standards also revise requirements applicable to cow milk;
• Specifies definitions and types of milk products and heat treatments, as well as conditions for product naming and labelling;
• Introduces provisions for adding micronutrients, probiotics and prebiotics, and enzymes in dairy products.

Food operators will be required to comply with the provisions of the new milk standards by not later than 1 July 2018.

The text of the standards as published in The Gazette of India is available here.