No more 'milawat' in mustard oil as FSSAI cracks down on adulteration

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has taken a step towards ensuring purity of the mustard oil by clamping down on the blending of other edible oils with mustard oil.

This decision comes amid the hike in prices of mustard oil, giving rise to speculations that other edible oil could be blended with mustard oil. The government has given direction to the FSSAI to look into the matter. The companies are currently allowed to mix 20 per cent other edible oil in mustard oil. However, after the new regulation comes into force from October 1, companies will be allowed to produce only pure mustard oil.

The FSSAI had in August collected 4,500 samples of edible oils from across the country for quality testing. The move was aimed at curbing sale of adulterated cooking oil in the market. As many as 50 samples were collected from  Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata -- and six-eight samples each from cities and districts, other than the metros.

The regulator said it has decided to intensify crackdown on the sale of adulterated edible oil with a pan-India surveillance of edible oil, both for the branded and unbranded oil samples. The samples were drawn from hypermarkets/ supermarkets as well as retail and grocery stores. It also includes national and local brands.