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Recently FSSAI, the apex food regulator has issued some guidelines for the food businesses or the sweet sellers dealing in the manufacturing or sale of the milk products, especially sweets. These guidelines were issued for ensuring that the sellers are taking care of proper hygiene and sanitation in the preparation of sweets and other milk products as this will directly assist in the safety and quality of milk products. Further, some other regulatory compliances like mentioning of the manufacturing and expiry date on both the pre-packaged and non-packaged milk products for consumer information were also issued earlier.
FSSAI is the supreme authority dealing with all the food-related issues. It is established under the FSS (Food Safety and Standard) Act, 2006[1]. Further, it has been formulated with an aim to lay down science-based standards for food articles and to administer their manufacture, sale, distribution, import and storage to ensure the readiness of safe, wholesome and quality food for human consumption.
As we all know, India is a country of rich traditions and culture of sweets with a variety of ingredients, taste, texture and method of preparation. Further, traditional milk-based sweets are usually prepared from chhena, sugar, khoya, and from other ingredients such as maida, colours and flavours, e.g. burfi, peda, milk cake, rasgulla, rasmalai, gulab jamun, etc. Also, there are some sweets which contain cereal, starch or grain as their main ingredient such asmoong dal halwa, motichoor laddoo, suji halwa, jalebi, soan-papdi, boondi laddoo, gujiya, balusahi, etc. Further, there are also some sweet snacks like gajak, chikki, murrunda, gudchana coated with jaggery, honey, sugar and other ingredients.
Sweets typically have limited shelf life, but particularly those which are made from milk and milk products have a much lesser shelf life, like maximum one to four days and are very much prone to microbial growth. Hence, proper hygiene and sanitation in the preparation will guarantee safety and quality of milk products used, and whereas the consumption within the prescribed shelf life is also utmost important.
Table of Contents
Earlier, there were a lot of issues arising because of adulteration and use of sub-standard products in sweets preparation. So, taking concerted efforts by FSSAI was the need of the hour, in order to ensure food safety of sweets by the stakeholders comprising of food business, consumers and regulatory authorities.
Further, there were a number of issues faced during the manufacturing and selling of sweets as people involved in the manufacturing process lacked in the adequate knowledge of the regulatory compliances and good hygienic practices. Furthermore, the requirements concerning packaging and labelling were also often neglected by them.
Also, there were certain issues regarding the use of non-permitted flavouring agents, colour or any other such ingredients. Moreover, the use of sub-standard quality raw materials for sweet manufacturing; recurrent use of the same oil in cooking or preparation leading to an increased level of trans fat, were some issues which were needed to be addressed.
FSSAI had conducted a pilot-scale survey of the milk products in order to ascertain the safety and quality of milk products sold in and around Delhi-NCR between 15 October 2019 and 7 November 2019 concurring with the festival season. Accordingly, samples were drawn from eleven districts in multiple locations acrossDelhi and NCR. Throughout the survey, a total of 1041 samples comprising of 438 packed and 603 loose milk products were collected. These samples included ghee, khoya, paneer, and milk-based sweets such as the chenna, chenna rasgulla, and khoya burfi were taken for testing at the National Food Laboratory located in Ghaziabad. Further, for the first-time surveillance was also focused on the microbiological parameters that comprised of process hygiene and pathogens.
Further, the survey divulges the trend that the collected milk product samples do not have any safety concerns in both chemical and microbiological examination. Hence, the samples collected were found to have mainly quality and hygiene issues, with more frequencies in loose samples as compared to the packed ones.
Following listed are the guidelines issued by the FSSAI for the food businesses or sweet sellers involved in the business of manufacturing and selling of the sweets made from milk and milk products –
From now onwards the food business may use the following listed logos in order to display the shelf life of the products for the consumer information –
As we know that the Indian sweets use an assortment of ingredients such as the ghee, sugar, flours, khoya, dry fruits etc. Hence, the shelf life of the sweets depends upon the ingredients used. For example, the Khoya Burfi has a much shorter shelf life than the Boondi Ladoo. In this respect, an illustrative list of the sweets along with their shelf life is given below:
More on FSSAI: FSSAI Guidelines & FSSAI License Requirement for Spices.
The first approach for a consumer is to prevent an encounter of any adulterated product. For that, he or she needs to avoid the purchase of loose products, as the possibility of adulteration in these case increases. Further, the right flavour, colour and texture, body and appearance of the milk products determines the quality and freshness of the concerned milk product. The table has given down below talks about the flavour, colour, body, texture and appearance of some sweets and other milk products.
Consumers can now test common adulterants available in the milk products by using Quick Tests as given below –
All the Food Safety Commissioners of States and Union Territories must ensure compliance and food safety for the milk products. For this special drive must be conducted frequently in order to ensure freshness and quality of sweets sold in the retails, including the sweets shops, halwai shops etc.
These guidelines were issued by FSSAI, in order to ensure hygiene and sanitation in the preparation and sale of the sweets, which will directly assist in the safety and quality of milk products being used. Further, it also stated that all the regulatory compliances including the display of shelf life of pre-packaged along with non-packaged milk products for the consumer information. Further, these guidelines helped in ascertaining the freshness and probability of the adulteration by observing the colour, texture and flavour of the milk products. Also, there are some simple tests prescribed to identify the adulteration in the milk products. Lastly, regular surveillance and enforcement activities on the sweets by the regulatory authorities will help in increasing its quality and decreasing the chance of adulteration.
Read, More: What is FSSAI Guidelines for Food Handlers?.
Shivani has completed her B com LLB (Hons) and has the experience of writing various research papers during her college time. Earlier she was working as an Associate in a law firm, but her interest in writing made her pursue content writing as a career. Her core area of interest is in writing about various legal enactments, tax and finance.
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