FSSAI – Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has issued a draft regulation specifying the standards of meat sausages. The FSSAI standard prescribed in the draft shall apply to meat sausages, fresh or cooked – as reported in fnbnews.
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The draft proposed to add a clause 2A related to sausage in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, regulation 2.5, under sub-regulation 2.5.2, after the clause 2 related to Comminuted or Restructured Meat Products‘.
The definition says sausage is a product obtained by stuffing minced meat (pork, poultry or meat from other food animals) and other ingredients (fat/oil, salt, water, extenders, spices and so on) in casings (natural/artificial) which may be marketed as fresh (raw), fermented, cooked and/or smoked.
According to the FSSAI draft, fresh sausages shall be prepared from one or more kinds of fresh, chilled or frozen meat, smoked sausages shall be prepared from one or more kinds of fresh, chilled or frozen meat and smoked with only hard wood or other non-resinous materials while cooked sausages shall be prepared from one or more kinds of fresh, chilled or frozen meat and cooked to attain the internal temperature of 75C and dry/fermented sausages shall be prepared from one or more kinds of fresh, chilled or frozen meat subjected to a controlled drying process.
The draft further lays that composition of finished product shall conform to the prescribed compositional requirements including Meat, Minimum (w/w) 50%, 60%, 65% for fresh, cooked & dry/fermented sausages respectively with Moisture, Maximum (w/w) 65%, 60% & 50% for fresh, cooked & dry/fermented sausages respectively and 3% total ash, Maximum.
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Recently, FSSAI has also come out with draft regulations for genetically modified food, proposing mandatory prior approval from the regulator to manufacture, sell and import food or ingredients produced from genetically-modified organisms.