The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued gazette notification further amending the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011. With this amendment, the authority has specified new standards for canned tomatoes, as well as revised the standards related to thermally-processed tomato juice, jams, fruit jellies and marmalades.

The said regulations may be called the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Sixteenth Amendment Regulations, 2017, and the food business operators (FBOs) are instructed to comply with the said provisions by July 2018.

As per the notification, under the Fruits and Vegetable Products clause, the new standards for canned tomatoes have been added after the Thermally-Processed Vegetables category. It states that the canned tomatoes shall be prepared from selected, fresh, washed, cleaned, firm and ripe tomatoes of the variety Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.

It may also contain natural spices and condiments, spice oils, aromatic herbs and their extracts, natural aromas, seasoning and salt (sodium chloride). Acidifying agents and sugars, as prescribed in these regulations, may be added.

It should packed in either regular packs with a medium liquid or solid pack without any added liquid.

If canned tomatoes are packed as tomato juice, water or puree, the quantity of added common salt must not exceed three percent of the net, and the natural content of chlorides should be equal to two per cent of the dry weight content.

Whereas, when calcium chloride is added as a firming agent, the total calcium-ion content should not exceed 0.045  and 0.080 per cent in whole style and non-whole style, respectively, with the pH of the covering liquid not higher than 4.5.