Ghee powder: what it is, how it's made and how to source it

9 min read · Sourcing guide · Updated 21 October 2026

Short answer: ghee powder is ghee turned into a dry, free-flowing powder. It is usually made by mixing melted ghee with water and a carrier, such as milk protein or milk solids, and spray-drying the mix, so each grain is fat wrapped in the carrier. It goes into dry mixes, seasonings, snack coatings and bakery items. It is not pure ghee: one maker's ghee powder states at least 80% fat, while ghee itself must be at least 99.5% milk fat in India. Fat content and carrier vary from maker to maker, so ask for the spec.

Ghee powder vs ghee vs butter powder vs vegetable ghee powder

Four products are sold under similar names. They start from different fats, so they behave differently in a recipe and are labelled differently. Read the ingredient list before you compare prices.

Sources for each cell are the FSSAI standard and the makers' own product pages, listed at the end. "—" means the source does not say. In India, "vegetable ghee" is a common name for vanaspati-type fats. FSSAI's vanaspati standard bars any colour resembling ghee and requires a flavour distinct from ghee, so a vegetable-oil powder should never be passed off as ghee powder.

What FSSAI and Codex say

FSSAI's standard for milk fat products (regulation 2.1.8 of the Food Products Standards and Food Additives Regulations, 2011) defines ghee as a fat derived only from milk or milk products, with almost all the water and milk solids-not-fat removed, and with "especially developed flavour and physical structure". Ghee must have at most 0.5% moisture, at least 99.5% milk fat and at most 2.0% free fatty acids (as oleic acid), and must pass the Baudouin test for added vegetable oil. The raw material must be free of added flavour, colour or preservative.

We searched the full FSSAI compendium (version dated 23 September 2022) and found no standard named ghee powder, butter powder or fat powder. A powder that carries milk protein or other solids cannot meet the 99.5% milk fat figure for ghee, so it is a different food from ghee in law. How a maker licenses and labels it is a matter between the maker and FSSAI. Ask to see the FSSAI licence and the product category printed on the label.

The international Codex standard for milkfat products (CODEX STAN 280-1973, amended 2010) describes ghee in almost the same words and sets a minimum of 99.6% milk fat. Neither text covers ghee in powder form.

How ghee powder is made

Fat powders are made in one of two ways, as a Fuji Oil patent on fat powder (US 4,855,157) sets out. The usual one is spray-drying: the fat is emulsified with water, an emulsifier and a water-loving base, then dried in hot air. Because each droplet of fat is coated, the powder flows freely whatever the fat's melting point. The cost is the energy to boil off the water, and heat can dull the flavour or drive off its aroma. The other way, spray-cooling, sprays molten fat into cold air, but soft fats come out sticky. Our sister site foodprocessingworld.com explains the full ghee plant and the extra spray-drying line in its ghee making machine guide.

A 2026 review in the International Dairy Journal (Bihola and colleagues, "Ghee powder: Processing technologies, functional properties, and applications") covers the drying methods and carriers in depth for readers who want the science.

Uses of ghee powder

Makers describe ghee powder as a way to add ghee flavour and mouthfeel where liquid fat is awkward to dose. Milkio names sauce mixes, seasoning blends, snack coatings and bakery items, as well as coffee creamer and seasoning for toast, popcorn and salads. VCA Healthcare names dry mixes, seasonings and powdered foods for its vegetable-oil powder. The fat-powder patent names cake and bread mixes, soup powders and toppings.

No maker we read names Indian sweets or halwa and laddoo premixes. If that is your use, ask for a sample and test it in your own recipe: ghee powder brings milk protein with it, and that changes texture.

What to ask a ghee powder supplier

Indian ghee powder makers

We list only companies whose own website shows the product. On 21 October 2026 we found no Indian company whose own site lists a dairy ghee powder. Directory sites list a few names, but we could not find the product on those companies' own pages, so we leave them out. Below are the closest makers we could verify, marked by what they actually make.

Listed in alphabetical order within each kind, not ranked. Facts are as each company states them on its own site; we have not tested any product.

Exporting ghee powder from India

India controls milk product exports through the Export Inspection Council. Its order on milk products (S.O. 2719 of 28 November 2000) bars a unit from exporting milk products unless it meets the standards that apply and the consignment comes with a certificate that the unit is approved and monitored by the Export Inspection Agency. The order counts as milk products not only foods made only from milk, but also composite products in which milk or a milk product is an essential part. Standards recognised are the importing country's national standard or the Codex standard.

So a buyer importing dairy ghee powder should ask the exporter for the plant's Export Inspection Agency approval, the FSSAI licence, and the health certificate the destination country asks for. Bona fide samples to a prospective buyer are outside the order within the value limit set in trade policy. For the full dairy compliance checklist, see our paneer and processed dairy export guide.

Photo: "Pure Ghee-Homemade-Maharashtra" by Phadke09, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). Shows ghee, not ghee powder.