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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified the revised standards for chocolates, and brought two more chocolates praline and couverture under the standard product category.
The new standards permit the use of vegetable oil, which was not permitted earlier. However, the use of vegetable fat other than cocoa butter is allowed internationally. Therefore, in line with the international and CODEX norms, the new standards for chocolate have been revised.
The new standards published in the gazette notification stated, “The addition of vegetable fats other than cocoa butter shall not exceed five per cent of the finished product, after deduction of the total weight of any other added edible foodstuffs, without reducing the minimum contents of cocoa materials.”
“The product may contain Isomaltulose at 50 per cent (maximum) of the total sugars without adversely affecting the stability of the product, and the material shall be free from rancidity or of odour, insect and fungus infestation, filth, adulterants and any harmful or injurious matter,” it added.
The new standards will now be applicable to ten types of chocolate, including praline chocolate and couverture chocolate. The others are milk chocolate, milk covering chocolate, plain chocolate, plain covering chocolate, blended chocolate, white chocolate, white chocolate filled chocolate and composite chocolate.
In addition, the chocolate may contain one or more of the substances, namely edible salts, spices and condiments and their extracts, vitamins and minerals, permitted emulsifying and stabilising agents, permitted sequestering and buffering agents.
The gazette prescribed the nature of vegetable fats permitted for the purpose. It stated, “The vegetable fat may be singly or in blends.
The following vegetable fats, obtained from the plants, may be used sal (Shorea robusta), kokum gurgi (Garcinia indica), mango kernel (Mangifera indica), palm oil (Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis olifera), mahua oil (Bassia latifolia or B longifolia), Dhupa fat (Vateria indica), Phulwara fat (Madhuca butyracea) and Dharambe fat (Garcinia cambogia) as cocoa butter equivalents.
Rashmi Kolhe, director, D’Armonia Consulting, said, “The permission to add vegetable fat upto five per cent is a very welcome move from FSSAI.”
“Internationally, it was a practice to add a small amount of vegetable fat. Until now, it was a big challenge to import chocolate with vegetable fats, as it was not compliant with the definition of chocolate under FSSAI regulations,” she added.
The set regulations will be called Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Fourth Amendment Regulations, 2017, and will come into effect from January 1, 2018.