The best container to store ghee is a glass jar with an airtight lid, kept in a dark cupboard: glass is a far better oxygen barrier than plastic, adds no copper or iron to the fat, and the cupboard keeps light off it. A steel dabba keeps light out too, and FSSAI's packaging regulations deem food stored in untinned copper or brass unfit to eat. Here is the evidence for each material, including plastic, and what we could not find.
This is about the container only; how long ghee lasts and how to tell when it has gone off are in how to store ghee and how long it keeps.
At a glance
- FSSAI's ghee standard allows at most 0.5 per cent moisture and requires at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, so the container's whole job is to protect that fat.
- The IIT Kharagpur NPTEL lecture on ghee says ghee exposed to light or air is oxidised, exposed to water vapour is hydrolysed, and exposed to copper or iron becomes rancid.
- FSSAI's Packaging Regulations, 2018 say copper or brass containers that are not properly tinned, and rusty containers, render food unfit for human consumption.
- In a 2024 storage study in Molecules, oil in polypropylene vials in the dark at 10 °C reached a peroxide value of 15.41 meq O2/kg at 270 days while glass vials protected it; under light, only amber glass wrapped in foil showed no rise.
- A 2023 review in Foods lists copper and iron as pro-oxidants that decompose lipid hydroperoxides into free radicals.
What does a ghee container have to do?
Keep four things away from the fat: light, oxygen, water and reactive metal. FSSAI's analysis manual for milk products says the most common cause of milk fat deterioration is rancidity due to oxidation, that fresh ghee has a peroxide value of zero, and that the hydroperoxides formed first break down into the aldehydes and ketones that give off-flavour.
The IIT Kharagpur lecture on ghee in the NPTEL course on food oils and fats puts it in one sentence: exposed to light, ghee is oxidised; exposed to air, oxidised; exposed to water vapour, hydrolysed; exposed to metals such as copper and iron, it becomes rancid. So packaging should be impermeable to all four. No study we found stored ghee itself in glass, steel and plastic side by side, so where we lean on oil and butter studies we say so.
Is glass the best container for ghee?
On the evidence, yes, provided the lid seals. Glass was the better oxygen barrier in the storage study below and adds no copper or iron to the fat; its weakness is that clear glass lets light through, which is why the jar belongs in a cupboard. FSSAI's packaging regulations list a glass bottle with metal or plastic caps, after a tinplate container, among the suggested packaging for fats and oils.
The oxygen point has been measured, though in a vegetable oil rather than ghee. A 2024 study in Molecules stored cold-pressed hemp seed oil for 270 days in vials of polypropylene, clear glass, amber glass, and amber glass wrapped in aluminium foil. In the dark at 10 °C, where only oxygen can drive oxidation, the oil in polypropylene, "which is partially permeable to oxygen", rose sharply to a peroxide value of 15.41 meq O2/kg at 270 days, while "glass vials represented a better barrier against oxygen permeation and protected oil from oxidation". Ghee is far more saturated than hemp seed oil, so its numbers would differ, but the barrier is a property of the container.
Amber glass or clear glass: does the colour matter?
It matters when light reaches the jar, and hardly at all when it does not: a jar inside a closed cupboard sees almost no light.
The hemp seed oil study ran a second set of vials under diffused light at 25 °C. There, "only amber glass vials with aluminum foil protected the oil, with no increase in the PV"; clear and amber glass without foil "showed intermediate behavior", and clear glass "was performing less well" on conjugated dienes and trienes in the last two months. Milk fat is not exempt: in a Norwegian study of light-exposed butter, oxidation was significantly higher in butter stored in air than under nitrogen.
So in a cupboard, a clear jar is as good as an amber one, and you can see the ghee. Out in the light, choose amber glass, or put the clear jar inside an opaque tin.
Is a stainless steel dabba good for ghee?
Probably, but with less evidence behind it than glass. Steel is opaque, so light is no concern, and a steel wall lets nothing through; the dabba is only as airtight as its lid. Stainless steel is an alloy of iron, and we found no study that stored ghee in it, so we cannot say from evidence that it leaves the fat alone; what we can say is that FSSAI's clause names rusty containers and untinned copper or brass, not steel.
One more gap. The regulations require metal containers to use appropriate grades and to conform to an Indian Standard in their metal schedule, which lists tinplate, chromium-coated steel and aluminium without naming stainless steel. That is how the schedule reads, not evidence that steel harms ghee. For a dabba at the stove, refilled every week or two from a sealed jar, we see nothing against it.
Can you store ghee in a plastic container?
You can, within limits. FSSAI's packaging regulations list rigid HDPE jars and PET bottles or jars among the suggested packaging for fats, oils and fat emulsions, and every plastic that touches food must pass an overall migration limit of 60 mg/kg and specific limits, including 5.0 mg/kg for copper.
The weakness is oxygen, not safety. In the hemp seed oil study, the polypropylene vials had "the worst performance" under light, approaching the oil's 15 meq O2/kg limit from the first 30 days and reaching 40 at 150 days. Not every plastic is equal: a 2023 study of an Argentine olive oil found that preservation in PET "appears adequate", with better stability when nitrogen replaced the air in the headspace. Our reading: a food-grade plastic jar is fine for ghee you will finish in a few weeks, and the wrong home for the year's store.
Why are copper, brass and iron the wrong metals?
Because they do not sit still. A 2023 review in Foods on the oxidative stability of oil-based foods lists transition metals, copper and iron, among the pro-oxidants in bulk oils, with the mechanism "decomposing lipid hydroperoxides into free radicals". Free radicals are what carry the chain reaction forward, so a container that feeds copper or iron into the fat speeds up its own spoilage.
Indian law takes the same view. FSSAI's Packaging Regulations, 2018 say that a utensil or container made of the following, used in preparing, packing or storing food, "shall be deemed to render it unfit for human consumption": rusty containers, chipped and rusty enamelled containers, and "copper or brass containers which are not properly tinned".
That is the whole case for the traditional tin-lined vessel. The tin lining is a layer of tin between the ghee and the copper or brass underneath; the vessel is lawful while that layer is intact, and once it wears through the ghee is touching copper. We found no study measuring how fast ghee oxidises in a tinned versus a bare brass pot; the regulation and the chemistry are the evidence. A rusting lid on any container falls under the same clause.
Which material wins on each count?
The table sets each material against the four jobs.
| Material | Light | Oxygen and water vapour | Metal reactivity | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear glass, tight lid | Lets light through | Barrier | None | Best in a cupboard | Bonazza 2024; FSSAI Packaging Regulations |
| Amber glass, tight lid | Better than clear under light; with foil, fully protected | Barrier | None | Best where light reaches the jar | Bonazza 2024 |
| Stainless steel | Blocks | Barrier, if the lid seals | Iron alloy; no ghee study found | Probably sound; unproven | NPTEL lecture 40; FSSAI Packaging Regulations |
| Food-grade plastic (HDPE, PET, PP) | Depends on the jar | Polypropylene partly permeable to oxygen; PET adequate for olive oil | None, within migration limits | Short-term only | FSSAI Packaging Regulations; Bonazza 2024; Monasterio 2023 |
| Copper or brass, tinned | Blocks | Barrier, if the lid seals | None while the tin lining is intact | Acceptable while the lining lasts | FSSAI Packaging Regulations |
| Copper, brass or iron, bare or rusty | Blocks | Barrier | Copper and iron catalyse oxidation | Unfit under FSSAI rules | FSSAI Packaging Regulations; Keramat 2023 |
The ghee going in matters too. A batch report's peroxide value and free fatty acid lines show how far oxidation and hydrolysis had gone before the container had any say; what each line means is in how to read a ghee lab report, and the FSSAI limits are in the ghee quality parameters table.
Headspace, lids and spoons: the habits that matter as much as the material
The container is only as good as the air in it and the spoon that goes in.
- Keep the headspace small. The air above the ghee is where the oxygen comes from. In a Norwegian study of butter under light, samples stored under oxygen concentrations from 0 to 21 per cent were more degraded the higher the oxygen, and the NPTEL lecture asks for cans to be filled without leaving space for air. At home, decant a large jar into a small one you can finish in a few weeks, and keep the large jar closed.
- Close the lid every time. A jar left open is exposed to air and light whatever it is made of.
- Use a dry spoon. The lecture says ghee deteriorates even when traces of moisture get in, and that the careful cook makes sure the spoon is completely dry before it goes into the container.
A clean glass jar with a lid that seals, kept in a cupboard, meets every requirement in the lecture and the regulations. If you buy our A2 bilona ghee, the batch code on the jar leads to that batch's laboratory report, published before the batch ships.
The short version
Ghee is at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, and the container's only job is to keep light, oxygen, water and copper or iron away from it. Glass with a tight lid does all four in a cupboard; out in the light, amber glass or an opaque tin keeps the light off. Food-grade plastic is permitted under FSSAI's packaging regulations but lets oxygen through, so keep it for a jar you will finish quickly. Untinned copper or brass, and anything rusty, render food unfit under those regulations, and copper and iron are the metals that decompose fat hydroperoxides into the radicals that make ghee rancid. Fill the jar, close the lid, use a dry spoon.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Mishra, H. N., Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Lecture 40: Ghee (Butter Oil). NPTEL, Food Oils and Fats: Chemistry & Technology.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2022). Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018 (compendium, Version-III, 1 June 2022). FSSAI.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2015). Manual of Methods of Analysis of Foods: Milk and Milk Products (section 13.8, Determination of Peroxide Value in Ghee). FSSAI.
- Bonazza F, Monti L, Povolo M, Gasparini A, Pelizzola V, Cabassi G (2024). Monitoring the Shelf Life of Hemp Seed Oil Stored at Two Temperatures in Different Materials via Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy. Molecules.
- Keramat M, Ehsandoost E, Golmakani M-T (2023). Recent Trends in Improving the Oxidative Stability of Oil-Based Food Products by Inhibiting Oxidation at the Interfacial Region. Foods.