How to read an oil label in India: FSSAI, AGMARK, cold pressed vs refined
An oil label in India is a legal document wearing a marketing coat. Part of what is printed there is required by regulation and checkable in thirty seconds; the rest is persuasion. Knowing which is which is the single most useful skill an oil buyer can have — so here is the label, decoded mark by mark, including the checks we would run on our own bottle if we were the customer.
What is the FSSAI licence number?
The one mark that must be on every packaged food sold in India. FSSAI — the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India — licenses every food business, and the 14-digit licence number has to be printed on the label, usually near the manufacturer's address. No number, no purchase: that is the simplest rule on this page. The number is also checkable — FSSAI runs a public licence search where you can confirm who actually holds it.
Ours is 10724999001232, printed on every bottle we ship. We would genuinely rather you verified it than took our word — a customer who checks licence numbers is exactly the customer this category needs more of.
What is AGMARK?
AGMARK is a grading mark run by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Government of India, for agricultural produce — edible oils and ghee included. A bottle carrying it has been graded against the AGMARK standard for that product.
The honest nuance: AGMARK is voluntary. Its presence means the producer opted into grading; its absence is not by itself a red flag, especially from small traditional producers. Read it as one more signal, not a verdict in either direction.
What does the green dot mean?
The mandatory vegetarian declaration — a green dot in a green square for vegetarian foods, its brown counterpart for non-vegetarian. Every plant oil should carry the green mark. Thirty years of Indian shopping means you check this without noticing you did.
Does "cold pressed" on the front legally mean anything?
Less than it should. The phrase itself is lightly policed, which is exactly why every refinery-adjacent brand has started printing it. But two label rules genuinely work in your favour, and they are where to look instead of the front of the pack:
- The product name must tell the truth about refining. A refined oil has to say "refined" in its name — that is the regulation working for you. And mustard oil goes further: FSSAI's standards define a specific kachi ghani grade, so "Mustard Oil (Kachi Ghani)" on a label is a defined legal identity, not a mood.
- The ingredient list cannot lie about additives. A genuine cold pressed oil has exactly one ingredient: the seed's oil. Many refined oils carry permitted antioxidant additives — you will see names or INS numbers in the list. Those additives are legal, and we are not suggesting otherwise. Our position is simpler: an oil with one ingredient does not need them.
What does the date tell you?
More than most marks on the pack. An unrefined oil without preservatives holds for 4 to 6 months — that short best-before is the signature of a genuinely cold pressed bottle, and it is why we press to order rather than to warehouse. Refined oils are engineered for long shelf life, and commonly carry a year or more.
So read the two claims together. A front label shouting "cold pressed" over a best-before eighteen months away deserves a much harder look — one of those two claims is carrying the other.
What other marks might you see?
ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 are audited management-system standards — quality and food safety respectively. HACCP and GMP are process-discipline systems. Halal marks certify conformance for the markets and households that require it. Jaivik Bharat and India Organic apply only where an organic claim is being made. All are real; none replaces the FSSAI licence, which is the only mark on this list the law insists on.
One more, because exporters love it: the US FDA registers food facilities that ship to America — it does not certify them, endorse them or inspect them into a seal of approval. A brand printing "USFDA certified" is over-claiming a registration. The truthful wording is "USFDA-registered", and that is the wording we use for our own facility. A label that over-claims a small thing has told you how it handles the big ones.
What do we put on our own labels?
The trust line we can defend document by document: FSSAI 10724999001232, ISO 9001, ISO 22000, GMP, HACCP, Halal, USFDA-registered facility. Beyond the marks, we publish a lab report for every batch we press, our oils are unfiltered — so sediment at the bottom is normal and expected — and the best-before is an honest 4 to 6 months. The comparison page carries the facts we print, oil by oil, and our black mustard oil wears the kachi ghani grade this article described.
The 30-second label check, in order
- FSSAI number present? If not, put it back.
- Does the name say "refined"? Then it is refined, whatever the front proclaims.
- How many ingredients? One is the right answer for a cold pressed oil.
- What is the best-before span? 4 to 6 months reads like an unrefined oil; 18 months does not.
- Does the price survive arithmetic? A litre of genuine cold pressed oil cannot cost less than the seed pressed into it. If the price only works for a refinery, a refinery is what filled the bottle.
Run those five and you will be a harder customer to fool than most — which is good for you, and honestly, good for every genuine wood pressed oil on the market.