The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has withdrawn the order that prohibited the blending of mustard oil in the country.
Earlier, the order had asked edible oil companies to stop the sale and manufacture of blended mustard oil from October 1 onwards which had sparked concerns in the edible oil industry.
On September 23, 2020, the FSSAI had decided to operationalise the Draft Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Amendment Regulations, 2020, which stated that “no manufacturing or sale of blended edible vegetable oil with mustard oil as an ingredient will be allowed with effect October 1”.
So far, three orders were passed by Hon'ble Justice Suman Shyam of the Gauhati High Court in respect of mustard oil keeping the impugned order of FSSAI dated 23.9.2020, suspended. The said matter was dealt by Advocate R K Agarwala, D K Das along with Harish Betala who represented the Petitioner Oil Mill M/s RSH Agro Products Pvt Ltd.
In the interim order, the Hon'ble Gauhati High Court (HC) stated that till the case is pending at the court, the FSSAI's original order is to be stayed.
G Plus spoke to a representative of RSH Agro Products who stated that they filed the petition as the order prohibited blending.
"There is already a pure mustard oil, Kachi Ghani and in the other oil we mix 80% refined oil and 20% pure mustard. The FSSAI halted this blending. Different petitions were filed across the country against this order. After the Gauhati HC stay, the FSSAI informed the Delhi High Court that they had withdrawn the order," said the representative.