The FSSAI has invited comments, suggestions and objections to the proposed revisions in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations, 2017 related to standards for Honey and standards for Bee Wax & Royal Jelly within 60 days from 27 July 2017.
In the regulation Sweets & Confectionery (2.7) the FSSAI proposes to add the standards for Dry Mixtures of Cocoa and Sugars which has been defined as the product obtained from Cocoa Cake transformed into powder. These standards will be applicable for dry mixtures of cocoa and sugars intended for direct consumption. Essential Requirements:
- a) Moisture Content, percent by mass: Not more than 7%
- b) Dry Mixtures of Cocoa and Sugars
The FBOs will have to adhere to the maximum limits of cocoa butter content and cocoa powder content in dry cocoa categories as mentioned below
- Sweetened Cocoa, or Sweetened Cocoa Powder or Drinking Chocolate
- Sweetened Cocoa Fat-reduced or Sweetened Cocoa Powder Fat reduced or Fat-Reduced Drinking Chocolate
- Sweetened cocoa Highly Fat reduced or Sweetened Cocoa Powder, Highly Fat-reduced or Highly Fat Reduced Drinking Chocolate
- Sweetened Cocoa Mix, or Sweetened Mixture with Cocoa or Sweetened Cocoa Mix,
- Sweetened Cocoa Mix Fat-reduced or Sweetened Mixture with Cocoa Fat reduced or Sweetened Cocoa-Flavoured Mix Fat reduced
- Sweetened Cocoa Mix, Highly Fat reduced or Sweetened Mixture with Cocoa, Highly Fat-reduced or Sweetened Cocoa-flavoured Mix, Highly Fat reduced.
Chocolate Powder is defined as a mixture of cocoa powder and sugars and/or sweeteners, containing not less than
- 32% wt/wt cocoa powder
- 29% wt/wt on a dry matter basis
Optional Ingredients that can be used in these products are Spices and Salt (Sodium chloride).
In the regulation SWEETENING AGENTS INCLUDING HONEY (2.8) under the category for Honey and it’s by-products FSSAI has proposed some changes.
Honey has been defined as the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees, from the nectar of blossoms or from secretions of plants, which honey bees collect, transform and store in honeycombs for ripening.
- Honey is to be free from organic and inorganic matter including visible mould, insects and insect debris, fragments of bees, brood, pieces of beeswax, grains of sand and any other extraneous matter.
- Honey can be labeled according to floral or plant source, if it comes from any particular source, and has the organoleptic, physicochemical and microscopic properties corresponding with that origin.
- In the case of “Monofloral Honey”, the minimum pollen content of the plant species concerned shall not be less than 45 percent of total pollen content
- In the case of “Multi floral Honey”, the pollen content of any of the plant species shall not exceed 45 percent of the total pollen content.
- “Carvia callosa” is the honey derived from the flower of Carvia callosa plant which is described as thixotropic and is gel-like extremely viscous when standing still and turns into a liquid when agitated or stirred.
- “Honeydew honey” is the honey which comes mainly from excretions of plant-sucking insects of Order Hemiptera on the living parts of plants or secretions of living parts of plants.
- The standards have been provided in a tabular form where parameters and permissible levels have been outlined.
Beeswax
Beeswax is obtained from the honeycombs of bees (family Apidae e.g. Apis mellifera L) after the honey has been removed by draining or centrifuging. The combs are melted with hot water, steam or solar heat and the melted product is filtered and cast into cakes of yellow beeswax.
- Yellow beeswax is yellow or light-brown solid that is somewhat brittle when cold and presents a dull, granular, non-crystalline fracture when broken; it becomes pliable at about 35o
- White beeswax is obtained by bleaching the yellow beeswax with oxidizing agents, e.g. hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, or sunlight. White beeswax is white or yellowish white solid of thin layers which are translucent.
- Beeswax consists of a mixture of esters of fatty acids and fatty alcohols, hydrocarbons, and free fatty acids; minor amounts of free fatty alcohols are also present.
- Required standards have been provided for beeswax when tested in accordance with the method specified in JECFA for Beeswax (INS No. 901).
Royal Jelly
- Royal jelly has been defined as the mixture of secretions from hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of worker bees, free from any additive.
- It is the food of larval and adult queens.
- It is a raw and natural food, unprocessed except for filtration which does not undergo addition of substances.
- The color, taste and the chemical composition of royal jelly are determined by absorption and transformation by the bees fed with the following two types of foods during the royal jelly production time:
- Only bee’s natural foods (pollen, nectar, and honey]
- bee’s natural food and other nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates)
- 10-hydroxy-2-decanoic acid or HDA is the characteristic component of royal jelly.
- Royal jelly is milky white, pale yellow, with luster. It is pasty or jelly-like at normal temperature with fluidity, and free from the bubble and foreign substances.
- Minor crystallization phenomena can occur naturally in royal jelly during storage.
- It is pungent, unfermented and shall not be rancid.
- It is acerb, spicy, and brings acrid taste to palate and throat.
- Furosine is an additional, optional quality parameter which shows freshness of royal jelly
Chemical requirements for Royal jelly have been given in tabular form.
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