The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has prohibited the sale of several alcoholic beverage products, including three variants of the country’s iconic Old Monk rum, after finding that manufacturers used artificial flavouring instead of relying on proper ageing processes and prescribed ingredients to develop taste and aroma.
In a press release issued late Sunday, India’s food safety regulator said investigations revealed that certain manufacturing units operated by Diageo India, the country’s largest liquor company by market share, and Inbrew had been adding flavours of the alcoholic beverages themselves to the products. According to the regulator, this included practices such as adding rum flavour to rum and whisky flavour to whisky.
“There is no internationally recognized manufacturing practice whereby rum flavour is added to rum or whisky flavour is added to whisky,” the FSSAI said.
The authority stated that some manufacturers were artificially recreating the natural aroma and taste of alcoholic beverages rather than allowing them to develop through maturation or by using traditional base ingredients.
“Few manufacturers are found to add flavour externally, which mimics the product’s inherent aroma and taste, and sell the same as a standard product, thereby misleading consumers. The potential need for the addition of such flavour is observed due to an existing malpractice wherein manufacturers, instead of creating products through maturation and/or from base materials such as molasses, malt, or grapes to develop their flavour naturally, use spirit/neutral alcohol primarily, which has no specific flavour and therefore add flavour externally,” the FSSAI said.
The regulator maintained that products manufactured in this manner fail to meet prescribed standards and should not be marketed under conventional liquor categories.
“Such products are not only sub-standard but are also misrepresented by using the names of standard categories. At best, they can be identified as Rum-flavoured Spirit or Whisky-flavoured Spirit, etc.,” it observed.
According to the FSSAI, laboratory analysis of rum and whisky samples collected from multiple manufacturers confirmed the presence of external artificial or nature-identical flavours, rendering the products sub-standard.
“Laboratory report clearly noted down, “the addition of artificial flavours is masking its natural flavour and making the product substandard””, it said, adding that these products should have ideally been named “flavoured/premix rum.”
Among the products affected are three Old Monk variants—The Legend, Gold Reserve and XXX Matured Rum—manufactured by M/s Mohan Rocky Springwater at its Khopoli unit. Also banned is McDowell’s No. 1 Rum produced by M/s United Spirits in Baramati.
The action also covers Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky and Old Cask Deluxe XXX Rum manufactured by M/s INBREW Beverages in Madhya Pradesh, as well as Central Province Whisky and McDowell’s No. 1 Celebration Matured XXX Rum produced by M/s Associated Alcohol & Breweries in the same state. Antiquity Blue Whisky and Royal Challenge Whisky manufactured by M/s United Spirits in Madhya Pradesh have also been included in the ban.
The FSSAI further disclosed that inspections and product sampling had been conducted at the premises of Goa-based M/s Mandexi Distilleries & Breweries. It added that notices had also been issued to six other manufacturers in Maharashtra, with additional regulatory action expected.
The regulator also questioned the labelling of Old Monk XXX Rum, which carries the claim that the product is “7 years’ blended.” The FSSAI described the statement as deceptive after its investigation found that the product primarily contains neutral, unmatured spirit, while matured rum spirit accounts for less than five per cent of the blend.
“This is also a clear violation of existing regulations, as the age claim of the spirit should be from the youngest of spirit in the blend as per FSS (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations. 2018,” the FSSAI said.
Clarifying its position, the authority noted that the use of natural and nature-identical flavouring substances remains permissible in alcoholic beverages. However, it stressed that while flavours such as coffee or vanilla may be added to alcohol products, incorporating rum flavour into rum or whisky flavour into whisky is comparable to adding tea flavour to tea or coffee flavour to coffee.
Meanwhile, Diageo India has challenged an FSSAI order dated June 29 before the Bombay High Court under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
In its writ petition, the company argued that there were no legal impediments to the declarations displayed on the labels of the products under FSSAI scrutiny. It also maintained that its production methods are consistent with long-established practices followed across the Indian alcohol industry.
