Cookware compliance: the pan, the steel, the gasket
Most of what governs a frying pan in India is not written about frying pans. It is written about the steel it was pressed from, the gasket inside the lid, and the food that touches it. Here is the layered map, with the order numbers.
- Pressure cookers run under the Domestic Pressure Cooker (Quality Control) Order, 2020, S.O. 294(E), against IS 2347:2017, on the Scheme-I factory licence route.
- The rubber gasket has an order of its own, S.O. 5371(E) of 14 December 2023 against IS 7466:1994, so a spare gasket is a certified article and not an accessory.
- The cookware order has been re-notified six times since August 2023, and BIS lists wrought aluminium utensils for implementation on 1 October 2026.
- FSSAI does not licence utensils, but the Packaging Regulations, 2018 make a rusty or untinned pan the food business operator's problem, which is a selling argument.
The pressure cooker order is the settled one
Domestic pressure cookers were pulled into compulsory certification before most kitchen brands opened a marketplace account. The Bureau of Indian Standards lists the instrument as the Domestic Pressure Cooker (Quality Control) Order, 2020, notified as S.O. 294(E) on 21 January 2020 and amended by S.O. 2019(E) on 23 June 2020. The standard is IS 2347:2017 and the licence runs under Scheme-I, the factory route that puts the ISI mark on the article. An electric kettle or an induction hob travels a different route, which we mapped in ISI versus CRS. A steel pan never goes near it.
The part worth reading is not that the licence exists but what it records. BIS publishes a product manual for IS 2347, and the scope of the licence names the type of coating, listing hard anodized, non-stick, powder coated, ceramic coated and high temperature resistant liquid coated. It names the material as aluminium alloy, stainless steel or 3 ply construction. It names the nature of the base as induction friendly or composite bottom. Three of the loudest selling points in the category are already written into a government document about your supplier’s factory, so you can ask for it rather than trust a spec sheet.
The gasket has an order of its own
Almost nobody checks this one. The rubber gasket inside the cooker is separately regulated. BIS lists rubber gaskets for pressure cookers against IS 7466:1994 under the Rubber Gaskets for Pressure Cookers (Quality Control) Order, 2023, notified as S.O. 5371(E) on 14 December 2023. If you sell a replacement gasket as a spare, or drop one in the box, you are shipping a separately certified article and not an accessory. It needs its own line on the compliance sheet and its own licence reference.
The cookware order itself keeps moving
The article level instrument for the rest of the kitchen has been re-notified six times in under three years. BIS records the chain as the Cookware and Utensils (Quality Control) Order, 2023 at S.O. 3583(E) dated 9 August 2023, then the renamed Cookware, Utensils and Cans for Foods and Beverages (Quality Control) Order, 2024 at S.O. 1365(E) dated 14 March 2024, then S.O. 4494(E) dated 14 October 2024, then the 2025 order at S.O. 3850(E) dated 22 August 2025, then S.O. 219(E) dated 15 January 2026 and S.O. 1661(E) dated 30 March 2026.
Four Indian Standards sit under that entry on the BIS list: IS 14756:2022 for stainless steel cookware, IS 1660:2024 for wrought aluminium utensils, IS 13983:1994 for stainless steel sinks for domestic purposes, and IS 18427:2024 for three piece round open top metal cans for foods and beverages. BIS separately publishes a list of orders notified but not yet in force. On that list, wrought aluminium utensils against IS 1660:2024 carry an implementation date of 1 October 2026, and the raw material standard IS 21:1992 follows on 1 December 2026.
Two consequences for an operator. First, the January 2026 order supersedes its predecessor only so far as it relates to wrought aluminium utensils and aluminium cans for beverages, so read the supersession clause, not a summary of it, before you decide something has fallen out of scope. Second, dates move and so do reliefs. DPIIT said in October 2024 that it had pushed implementation and added an exemption for Udyam registered micro enterprises where investment in plant and machinery does not exceed Rs 25 lakh and turnover does not exceed Rs 2 crore, a six month window to clear legacy stock, an exemption for imported cans already filled, and an exemption for 200 units a year imported for research and development. Those reliefs attach to the maker and to the consignment. None of them attaches to your brand.
Your steel is certified before your pan is
This is the layer sellers miss. The BIS product manual for IS 14756 sets the raw material for stainless steel cookware as IS 5522 or IS 15997, the composite bottom material as IS 15960 and handles as IS 13395, and it states that material to IS 5522 and IS 15997 shall itself be ISI marked. Those two sheet standards sit under the Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order, most recently notified at S.O. 3716(E) on 29 August 2024 and amended at S.O. 5134(E) on 20 November 2025 and S.O. 3300(E) on 22 June 2026. Wrought aluminium for utensils, IS 21:1992, sits under the Aluminium and Aluminium Alloy Products (Quality Control) Order, first notified at S.O. 4241(E) on 25 September 2023. The pan and the metal it was pressed from are certified by different orders on different clocks.
FSSAI does not licence your pan and still judges it
Most sellers assume anything touching food needs a food licence. It does not. The FSSAI licensing FAQ answers the question flatly: no FSSAI licence or registration is required for utensils or packaging material, because they are not covered by the definition of food in section 3(n) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. That is a clean negative, and it deletes a workstream.
The qualification matters if you sell to kitchens rather than to households. The Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018 define packaging material as cardboard, paper, glass, metal, plastic and multilayer material used for packaging food, which is not a kadai. But regulation 4(3)(a) provides that a rusty container, an enamelled container that has become chipped and rusty, or a copper or brass container that is not properly tinned, when used in the preparation, packaging and storing of food, is deemed to render that food unfit for human consumption. The sanction lands on the food business operator, not on you. Your institutional buyer therefore has a compliance reason to care about your finish and your tinning, which is a selling argument rather than a licensing burden.
What to hold on file
Per article, hold the BIS licence number, the address of the licensed unit, the standard and year it covers, and the licence scope wording where it names coating, material and base. Per consignment, hold the mill certificate for the steel or the aluminium and the evidence that the incoming metal was itself marked. Per spare part, hold the gasket licence separately. Then diarise a quarterly check of the BIS list of products under compulsory certification and the list of orders not yet in force, because in this category the register changes faster than your catalogue does. The wider filing discipline is in our note on the product safety document audit.