India's official ghee quality parameters are set by FSSAI's standard for milk fat products: moisture at most 0.5 per cent, milk fat at least 99.5 per cent, a butyro-refractometer reading of 40.0 to 44.0 at 40 °C, a Reichert-Meissl value of at least 24.0, a Polenske value of 0.5 to 2.0, free fatty acids at most 2.0 per cent as oleic acid, a negative Baudouin test and no β-sitosterol. The standard also fixes an iodine value, a saponification value and a fatty acid composition for ghee.
This is the reference list. Every limit below is copied from regulation 2.1.8, Standard for Milk Fat Products, in Chapter 2.1 of the FSSAI Food Products Standards regulations; what each test measures comes from FSSAI's Manual of Methods of Analysis of Foods for milk and milk products (2015). If you have a report in front of you, our guide to reading a ghee lab report works through one line by line.
At a glance
- FSSAI regulation 2.1.8 sets eleven requirements for ghee, from moisture (0.5 per cent maximum) and milk fat (99.5 per cent minimum) to a fatty acid composition table.
- The identity values are a butyro-refractometer reading of 40.0 to 44.0 at 40 °C, a Reichert-Meissl value of at least 24.0, a Polenske value of 0.5 to 2.0, an iodine value of 25 to 38 and a saponification value of 205 to 235.
- Two purity tests must come back clean: the Baudouin test negative, and β-sitosterol absent by the RP-HPLC method FSSAI notified on 25 March 2019.
- Ghee has no peroxide value limit in the FSSAI table; butter oil (0.6) and anhydrous milk fat (0.3) do.
- FSSAI's manual gives natural reference points: fresh ghee has 0.09 to 0.28 per cent free fatty acids, cow and buffalo ghee an RM value of about 28, and ghee from cotton-seed-fed animals about 20.
What are the official ghee quality parameters in India?
They are the eleven requirements in the ghee column of FSSAI's table for milk fat products. Five describe composition and condition: moisture, milk fat, free fatty acids, iodine value and saponification value. Five test identity: the BR reading, RM value, Polenske value, Baudouin test and β-sitosterol. The eleventh fixes the fatty acid composition. Peroxide value is listed but blank for ghee.
| Parameter | Limit for ghee, as published | What it detects | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture, % (m/m) | 0.5 maximum | Water left in the fat | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.2 |
| Milk fat, % (m/m) | 99.5 minimum | How much of the product is fat | FSSAI 2.1.8 |
| Butyro-refractometer reading at 40 °C | 40.0 to 44.0 | Fats that bend light differently from milk fat | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.3 |
| Reichert-Meissl value | 24.0 minimum | Butyric and caproic acid, peculiar to milk fat | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.5 |
| Polenske value | 0.5 to 2.0 | Caprylic and capric acid | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.5 |
| Free fatty acids as oleic acid, % | 2.0 maximum | Fat split by hydrolysis | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.4 |
| Peroxide value, meq oxygen/kg fat | No limit set for ghee | Early oxidation | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.8 |
| Baudouin test | Negative | Sesame oil, the marker in vanaspati | FSSAI 2.1.8; manual 13.6 |
| Iodine value | 25 to 38 | A fat constant; not described in the manual's ghee section | FSSAI 2.1.8 |
| Saponification value | 205 to 235 | A fat constant; not described in the manual's ghee section | FSSAI 2.1.8 |
| β-sitosterol | Absent | Vegetable oil, by RP-HPLC (FSSAI order of 25 March 2019) | FSSAI 2.1.8, footnote |
| Fatty acid composition | Must meet Table 1 of the standard | The share of each of twelve fatty acids | FSSAI 2.1.8, Table 1 |
Two things sit outside the table. The standard describes ghee as derived "exclusively from milk or products obtained from milk" by processes that bring about "almost total removal of water and milk solids-not-fat". And it refers contaminants, toxins and residues to a separate regulation, so none of these parameters covers pesticides, heavy metals or aflatoxins.
What does each test measure?
Each isolates a property of milk fat that a cheaper fat, or a badly made batch, is unlikely to share. Moisture is a drying test and free fatty acids a titration. The RM and Polenske values are distillations, the BR reading is optical, and the Baudouin test is a colour reaction. FSSAI's manual describes them as follows.
- Moisture. About 10 g of ghee is dried at 105 ± 1 °C until two successive weighings differ by no more than 1 mg; the loss in mass is the moisture.
- Butyro-refractometer (BR) reading. The refractive index of the melted fat on an arbitrary scale, read at 40 °C because ghee is often solid at room temperature.
- Free fatty acids (FFA). How far hydrolysis has freed fatty acids from the glyceride, by titrating 10 g of ghee with alkali, calculated as oleic acid.
- Reichert-Meissl (RM) value. The millilitres of 0.1 N alkali that neutralise the water-soluble, steam-volatile fatty acids distilled from 5 g of ghee: about three-quarters butyric acid, one-quarter caproic.
- Polenske value. The same distillation, counting the water-insoluble volatile acids: about one-quarter caprylic, three-quarters capric.
- Baudouin test. Melted ghee shaken for two minutes with hydrochloric acid and furfural solution. A pink or red acid layer that survives added water means sesame oil is present.
Peroxide value is a titration of the hydroperoxides that form first when fat oxidises. The manual's ghee chapter stops there: it does not describe the iodine or saponification value methods, and for β-sitosterol the standard itself points to an RP-HPLC method notified by an FSSAI office order dated 25 March 2019.
What does an out-of-range result suggest?
It depends on the parameter. High moisture or free fatty acids point to how the ghee was made or kept. A BR or RM result outside its range points to a fat that is not wholly milk fat, with natural exceptions. A positive Baudouin test or detectable β-sitosterol points to vegetable fat. Here is what FSSAI's manual says about each.
- Free fatty acids near or above 2.0 per cent. Fresh ghee has 0.09 to 0.28 per cent, average 0.16, and sensory quality deteriorates as the figure rises; highly acidic ghee also oxidises faster and keeps poorly.
- BR reading above 44.0. Most vegetable oils and fats read above 50 and animal body fats 44 to 51, so a high reading suggests a foreign fat; fewer short-chain fatty acids also raise it. Coconut oil (38 to 39) and palm oil (39 to 40) are the exceptions the manual says this test cannot catch.
- RM value below 24.0. The short-chain acids are diluted. Of the common vegetable oils only coconut and palm kernel contain steam-volatile acids, at an RM value of about 7. The natural exception is feed: ghee from cotton-seed-fed animals reads about 20.
- Polenske value outside 0.5 to 2.0. The manual gives cow and buffalo ghee about 1.5 in general, and elsewhere cow ghee 2 to 3 and buffalo ghee 1 to 1.5; coconut and palm kernel oils read about 13. Read a cow ghee result of 2.0 alongside the other values.
- Baudouin test positive. Sesame oil is present. Under the 1962 notification the manual cites, vanaspati must contain at least 5 per cent sesame oil, so this is the classic sign of vanaspati. FSSAI's rapid-test manual cautions that the test "does not differentiate between sesame oil and vanaspati" and that some coal tar dyes give the same pink colour with acid.
- β-sitosterol detected. The standard's footnote calls the method one for the "determination of adulteration of vegetable oil in ghee", so a positive result points to vegetable oil.
The cheats these tests catch, and the ones they miss, are set out in our article on ghee adulteration in India.
Does the RM value vary by region or season?
Not in the current standard. The ghee column carries one national set of limits, with no region-wise Reichert-Meissl or butyro-refractometer ranges and no separate figures for cow and buffalo ghee. The only natural variation in RM value that FSSAI's manual records is feed, not geography: cotton-seed feeding lowers it to about 20.
On season the manual is explicit: "No significant seasonal variations have, however, been recorded for their fat constants." It does note a species difference in the Polenske value, cow ghee at 2 to 3 against buffalo ghee at 1 to 1.5, but the legal range of 0.5 to 2.0 applies to both.
How does the ghee column differ from butter oil and anhydrous milk fat?
The three share identical identity limits and differ on condition. Ghee is allowed the most moisture (0.5 per cent against 0.4 for butter oil and 0.1 for anhydrous milk fat), the least milk fat (99.5 per cent against 99.6 and 99.8) and the most free fatty acids (2.0 per cent against 0.4 and 0.3).
Ghee alone carries iodine and saponification values and a fatty acid table, and ghee alone has no peroxide limit (butter oil 0.6, anhydrous milk fat 0.3). The standard's only explanation is that ghee "has especially developed flavour and physical structure as a result of its method of manufacturing".
What does the fatty acid composition table require?
Table 1 of the standard fixes a range for each of twelve fatty acids, determined by gas-liquid chromatography and expressed as a percentage of total fatty acids. The saturated acids run from butyric (1 to 5 per cent) through capric (0.8 to 5), lauric (1.5 to 4) and myristic (6 to 13) to palmitic (22 to 38) and stearic (8 to 19).
Caproic acid is set at 0.5 to 2.2 per cent and caprylic at 0.4 to 1.5; the unsaturated acids are palmitoleic at 0.9 to 2.8, oleic at 19 to 32, linoleic at 0.5 to 3.5 and linolenic at 0.3 to 1.0. A note gives food businesses two years from the notification of 27 December 2021 to comply. The RM and Polenske values capture only the four shortest acids; this profile checks the longer chains too.
Where do Agmark grades fit?
Agmark is a separate grading scheme, and a graded pack still has to meet the FSSAI standard, which applies to all ghee. We could not open the current grading rules while preparing this article, so we do not quote them. Our article on what Agmark means on ghee sets them out grade by grade.
Every Himdhara jar carries a batch code, and the laboratory report for each batch is published on the lab reports page before the batch ships, so you can set those figures against the table above yourself.
The short version
FSSAI's standard for milk fat products sets eleven requirements for ghee: moisture at most 0.5 per cent, milk fat at least 99.5 per cent, a BR reading of 40.0 to 44.0 at 40 °C, an RM value of at least 24.0, a Polenske value of 0.5 to 2.0, free fatty acids at most 2.0 per cent, an iodine value of 25 to 38, a saponification value of 205 to 235, a negative Baudouin test, no β-sitosterol and a fatty acid composition within Table 1. There is no peroxide limit. Moisture and free fatty acids describe condition; the rest test identity. The table is national, with no regional or seasonal variants, and none of it covers contaminants.
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.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011: Chapter 2.1, Dairy products and analogues, regulation 2.1.8, Standard for Milk Fat Products. FSSAI.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2015). Manual of Methods of Analysis of Foods: Milk and Milk Products, section 13, Ghee. FSSAI.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Manual of Methods (rapid tests for common adulterants), test 24, Detection of Vanaspati/Hydrogenated Edible Fat in Ghee. FSSAI.