BASMATI RICE GETS NEW FSSAI STANDARD
Jay Patel | 13 JAN 2023
India is second largest producer and consumer of Rice after China.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for the first time has released comprehensive guidelines and standards for the identification of basmati rice in order to promote fair trade practice and make Rice ”an essential commodity” free from adulteration. FSSAI notified comprehensive standards for basmati rice through Gazette notification dated 11th January 2023. According to Gazette notification,” Basmati Rice should have a natural fragrance and basmati rice (both raw and cooked) should not contain colouring, polishing agents and artificial fragrances. Basmati rice can be categorized into following types: 1- Brown Basmati Rice, 2- Milled Basmati Rice, 3- Parboiled Brown Basmati Rice, and 4- Milled Parboiled Basmati Rice. FSSAI has notified following standards:
| Sr. No. | Parameters | Brown Basmati Rice | Milled Basmati Rice | Parboiled Brown Basmati Rice | Milled Parboiled Basmati Rice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Average Length (mm) | 7.0 and Above | 6.61 and Above | 7.0 and Above | 6.61 and Above |
| 2 | Average Length (breadth ratio) | 3.5 and Above | 3.5 and Above | 3.5 and Above | 3.5 and Above |
| 3 | Average Length rice length (mm) | 12.0 and Above | 12.0 and Above | 12.0 and Above | 12.0 and Above |
India is second largest producer and consumer of Rice after China.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture, India, between 2017-18
and 2021-22 on an average produced 120.544 million tons of rice and
consumed 104.170 million tons of rice between 2019-20 and 2021-22. It
would be interesting to know that India is largest exporter of Rice
and accounts for more than 2/3rd of global supply. India ships more
rice than next three largest exporters on an annual basis.
Amid Global supply chain disruption and Russia-Ukraine
war, prices of rice surged to 18-months high and thus premium quality
basmati rice commands premium price which makes it prone to various
adulteration practice and illegal blending of low quality rice with
premium varieties. Hence, in order to boost supply of standardized
rice quality, FSSAI in consultation with government and other
stakeholders came up with comprehensive standards for basmati rice.
FSSAI notified 01st August 2023 as implementation date for adhere to
above standards.
Disclaimer: This article has been written by Jay Patel - Our Senior Research Analyst and originally published on Smart Investment website.