Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) has, vide Notification No. 2/SA-24/2009(1)/FSSAI dated 19^th March 2018 has published the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018 under Section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (“Act”), in the Official Gazette and all Food Business Operators must comply with all the provisions of these regulations by 1^st April 2019.

Some of the key highlights of these regulations are as follows:

1. FSSAI has provided definitions of a detailed list of alcohol and alcohol-related products for both distilled and un-distilled beverages. All alcoholic beverages sold in India are now properly distinguished into different categories based on their cereal grains, hops, fruits, vegetables, molasses or any other source of carbohydrates of agricultural origin.
2. There are new requirements and standards that are now strictly enforced for processes like distillation, fermentation, spirit concentrations, flavouring, colouring, turbidity, dilution and addition of additives like sugar and water.
3. All alcohol bottles must comply with specific labelling requirements specified in these regulations, in addition to the general labelling provisions specified in the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, such as declaration of alcohol content, labelling of standard drinks and clear geographical indicators for products originating from a certain geographical region. Bulk containers shall have no upper limit for alcohol content but should meet the safety parameters of the product standards. Such products are also mandated to carry a label declaring, “For Manufacturer of Alcoholic Beverages only”. Alcoholic beverages containing not more than 8.0per cent. alcohol by volume, may be called low alcoholic beverage.
4. FSSAI has now introduced a strict restriction on displaying any nutritional information including any health claims on the label. Also, usage of words like ‘non-intoxicating’ or any other similar expressions, are not permitted for beverages containing more than 0.5 per cent alcohol by volume.
5. Any food products containing alcohol now must be accurately represented in a form which suggests that the product is alcoholic in nature.
6. Wine-based products now have mandatory additional regulations such as indication of the country of origin, sugar quantity, variant of grape or fruit used in descending order of quantity and the names of residues of preservatives or additives present in it. Additionally, some optional labelling requirements of wine-based beverages include declaration of the generic name of the grape and its variety, raw material used etc.

Please refer to the attached document for further details.

Source: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

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