Bombay HC seeks Centre's reply on FSSAI ban on flavoured rum

The Bombay High Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response to a plea by alcoholic-beverage makers challenging the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) prohibition on the sale of certain rum and whisky variants, after the regulator objected to the use of added flavouring in products labelled as standardized spirits.

Senior counsel Navroz H. Seervai, representing Mohan Rocky Springwater Breweries Pvt. Ltd, maker of Old Monk Rum, told the court that the product has been sold for more than five decades and that the prohibition was causing the company losses of almost ₹1 crore a day.

“I am losing one crore a day… for fifty years it (rum) has been sold under all relevant provisions,” said Seervai.

Seervai argued that changing the label would amount to conceding that the product had been incorrectly described for the past 50 years. He also said there had been no consumer complaints or reported illnesses linked to the products.

“I can't put that label because then it means I'm conceding that what I've done is incorrect…Nobody has complained, nobody has fallen in, nobody has taken action. How can this be done?” he added.

A division bench headed by acting chief justice Ravindra V. Ghuge and justice Gautam A. Ankhad directed the Centre to respond to the manufacturers’ plea by 19 August. The court had earlier clubbed the petition filed by United Spirits with Mohan Rocky Springwater Breweries’ plea. United Spirits had made its submissions before the court on Friday.

The matter will be heard next on 24 August, when the Bombay High Court is expected to pass an order on the pleas.

Emailed queries sent to FSSAI remained unanswered until press time.

What FSSAI objected to

The dispute stems from laboratory tests conducted by FSSAI, which found external artificial or nature-identical flavouring substances in the products. According to the regulator, these substances masked the products’ natural characteristics.

Based on its findings, FSSAI prohibited the sale of specific variants of McDowell's No. 1 Rum, Antiquity Blue Whisky and Royal Challenge Whisky manufactured by United Spirits; select Old Monk rum variants made by Mohan Rocky Springwater Breweries; and Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky and Old Cask Deluxe XXX Rum produced by Inbrew Beverages.

The regulator also inspected Mandexi Distilleries & Breweries in Goa and issued notices to six other manufacturers in Maharashtra.

FSSAI cited the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018, which require standardized alcoholic beverages such as rum and whisky to possess their characteristic taste and aroma. The regulator argued that adding “rum flavour” to rum or “whisky flavour” to whisky misrepresents these standardized products.

In a previous hearing on Friday, United Spirits, maker of McDowell's No. 1 Rum, argued that adding rum flavouring to rum has been an industry practice for decades and that the food regulator cannot suddenly stop the sale of products that have been sold for years without finding any health risk.