Mustard Oil : The FDA Rule and "External Use Only" Label
In the United States, bottles of traditional pressed mustard oil almost always carry a "For External Use Only" label. This isn’t because the oil is harmful for consumption; it’s because of a specific FDA regulation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the sale of expressed mustard oil for cooking due to its chemical composition. To comply, importers and brands reclassify it as a cosmetic or massage oil. That allows it to be sold legally in Indian grocery stores and online, but only with the mandatory warning that it is not for human consumption. Essential mustard oil, which is made by steam distillation and used as a flavouring, is treated differently by the FDA and is considered GRAS "generally recognized as safe" but the pressed cooking oil is not.
The Main Concern: Erucic Acid
The core issue is erucic acid , a long-chain monounsaturated fatty acid. Traditional mustard oil made from Brassica juncea seeds contains about 20% to 50% erucic acid. It also has about 42% erucic acid on average, along with oleic and linoleic acids.
In the 1950s and 1960s, animal studies , mostly on rats , found that feeding very high amounts of erucic acid led to fat deposits in the heart muscle, a condition called myocardial lipidosis. Based on that, health authorities set limits. The FDA and EU allow a maximum of 2% erucic acid in edible oils. Canola oil was specifically bred to meet this standard. Regular mustard oil far exceeds it, so it fails the standard for food use.
The European Food Safety Authority notes that average adult consumption is likely not a problem, but it still recommends that children under 10 avoid high erucic acid intake. Because the FDA applies a precautionary approach, it banned expressed mustard oil as a food ingredient rather than set a use limit.
Other Safety and Quality Factors
Erucic acid isn’t the only reason regulators are cautious. Mustard oil has also been linked to adulteration problems, especially in South Asia. In the past, some producers mixed in argemone oil, which can cause "epidemic dropsy," a serious condition. That history contributed to a broader regulatory wariness.
Additionally, mustard oil contains glucosinolates and allyl isothiocyanate, the compounds that give it the sharp, pungent smell and taste. In high concentrations these can irritate the digestive tract. While these are also what make mustard oil valued in traditional cooking and medicine, regulators prefer oils with a more neutral safety profile for mass-market food use.
Why It’s Still Widely Used Anyway
Despite the label, many South Asian, Bangladeshi, Bengali, and North Indian households in the US do cook with mustard oil. It’s often bought and used as-is, with people treating the "external use" label as a legal workaround rather than a health warning.
There is also a distinction that causes confusion. The FDA does allow "mustard essential oil" as a food flavoring because distillation removes most of the erucic acid. So you’ll find mustard flavor in pickles and snacks, just not the bulk cooking oil.
Some companies now produce low-erucic-acid mustard oil specifically to meet FDA standards for food. Those versions can be legally sold as cooking oil in the US, but they taste milder and are not the same as the traditional pungent oil used in achar, tadka, or fish curries.
Conclusion
The "for external use only" label comes down to one regulatory decision: traditional mustard oil is too high in erucic acid to meet the FDA’s 2% limit for edible oils. Rather than ban it entirely, the FDA allows it as a cosmetic. The concern is based on old animal data and a precautionary stance, not on documented cases of illness in humans from normal cooking use. That’s why the oil sits on shelves next to hair and massage oils, even while it remains a kitchen staple in much of the world.
( Avtar Mota )
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