Read full article by Aswani Maindola@ FnBNews Photo Credit: Queensland Country Life
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Fifth Amendment Regulations, 2021, to include standards for multigrain flour and mixed millet flour.
“The product shall have flour composition obtained from whole wheat ranging from 50-90% and rest of the flour (10% – 50%) composition shall be from other permitted ingredients singly or in combination,” reads the regulation.
According to the notified regulations, ‘multigrain flour’ (atta) means the product obtained by milling/grinding blend of clean whole wheat and other permitted ingredients or mixing their flours wherein the ‘other Permitted Ingredients’ include ‘Processed Soybean, Cereals, Pulses, Millets, Psyllium husk, Gluten, wheat bran and fenugreek seeds.
These products need to comply with prescribed parameters including not more than 13% moisture by mass, not more than 0.15% acid insoluble ash on dry basis, not less than 3% gluten on dry basis, not less than 10% protein, not less than 12% dietary fibre, not less than 0.18% alcoholic acidity and 98% particle should pass through 40 mesh.
Another flour standard added to the regulation was that of mixed millet flour. Mixed millet flour means the product obtained by milling /grinding blend of clean millets/pseudo millets or by blending flour obtained from clean millets.
The regulations included millets like Sorghum/ Jowar (Sorghum bicolor), Pearl Millet / Bajra (Pennisetumglaucum) , Finger Millet/ Ragi/Mandua (Eleusinecoracana), Foxtail Millet/Kanngani/kakun (Setariaitalica), Proso Millet/ Cheena (Panicummilliaceum), Kodo Millet/ Kodo (Paspalumscrobiculatum), Barnyard Millet/ Sawa/Sanwa/Jhangora (Echinochola crus-galli) , Little Millet/ Kutki (Panicumsumatrense) , Brown top millet (Brachiariaramosa) and pseudo-millets – Buck wheat / Kuttu (Fagopyrumesculentum), Amaranth/ Chaulai (Amaranthuscruentus).
The parameters for millet products include moisture not more than 11% by mass, not more than 0.15% acid insoluble, not less than 8% protein, not less than 12% dietary fibre and 98% particle should pass through 40 mesh.
Besides, the food authority has notified the regulations related to animal feed.
The regulations say, “Milk and meat producing animals except poultry, pig and fish shall not be fed with feed containing meat or bone meal including internal organs, blood meal and tissues of bovine or porcine origin materials except milk and milk products. Commercial feeds shall comply with the relevant BIS standards, as may be specified by the Food Authority from time to time, and carry BIS certification mark on the label of the product.”
Food businesses were asked to comply with all the provisions of these regulations by June 1, 2022.
