FSSAI implements Traceability Application under RUCO Initiative

What is RUCO Initiative?

According to the press release on 10 August 2018, on the occasion of World Biofuel Day, FSSAI launched Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO). RUCO is an initiative of the Food Safety and Standards of India (FSSAI). RUCO is an ecosystem that enables the collection and conversion of used cooking oil into biodiesel. 

What is the purpose of the RUCO Initiative?

India is the world’s largest consumer of vegetable oil. During repeated frying, a number of oil components get altered and their integrity is lost due to which Total Polar Compounds(TPC) are formed. These TPCs are toxic and may cause several diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and liver diseases. Hence, it is important to monitor the quality of cooking oil during frying. 

 

In order to protect consumer rights and health, FSSAI established RUCO. RUCO coincides with the term ‘to stop’ in Hindi. The RUCO ecosystem will put forward a caution to the Food businesses and consumers to stop and take a step back before using cooking oil for repeated frying.

As per the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) First Amendment Regulation-2017, the fixed limit for Total Polar Compounds is 25%, however, if the value exceeds the limit, cooking oil is not suitable for consumption.

To collect such used cooking oil, FSSAI issued the guidelines in May 2019. This oil will be converted into biodiesel. UCO can be discarded at Authorised UCO aggregators/collection agencies that are registered with an Authorised agency such as States Biodiesel Boards, or the Biodiesel Association of India.

What is the Traceability Application?

The Food Authority of India has developed a Repurpose Used Cooking Oil/RUCO traceability app. For streamlining the RUCO initiative and to provide ease of business RUCO traceability app was developed by FSSAI. 

RUCO traceability application is designed to check the repeated frying of cooking oil and to track the safety limit of that oil. 

RUCO traceability app will oversee the whole RUCO ecosystem.

• It will generate the Used Cooking Oil disposal requests
• It will enroll Food Product units
• It will recognise aggregators requested by Non-Food Production units
• It will monitor transactions 
• It will generate data
• It will report in real-time.

Important pointers:

• The RUCO Traceability Application is available on the RUCO website.
• To access the app, visit the link https://eatrightindia.gov.in/ruco/r-app/
• The FBOs can use the login facilities of the app.
• It shows the list of Used Cooking Oil aggregators/collectors details in India
• It also mentions the details of Non-Food Product Units.
• The website also has a guidance user manual and tutorial video for the FBOs to refer to and get familiar with the RUCO app.
• With the approval of Competent Authorities, the Traceability Application will be available on 15 March 2023.

Reference:

https://www.fssai.gov.in/upload/advisories/2023/02/63f8a90fd0d77RUCO.pdf