Old Monk maker flags Rs 1 crore daily loss as liquor firms challenge FSSAI curbs

MUMBAI: The Old Monk is facing a new-age roadblock. The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Centre to respond to petitions filed by liquor manufacturers challenging the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) decision to prohibit the sale of select rum and whisky variants over their use of flavouring substances.

Among the petitioners is Mohan Rocky Springwater Breweries, the maker of Old Monk Rum, which told the court that the restriction is costing it nearly Rs 1 crore a day.

Representing the company, senior counsel Navroz H. Seervai argued that Old Monk has been sold for more than five decades in compliance with the regulations applicable to the category. He said the sudden restriction had severely disrupted the company’s business.

“I am losing one crore a day… for fifty years it has been sold under all relevant provisions,” Seervai told the court, according to Mint.

The company also opposed FSSAI’s proposed relabelling requirements, arguing that complying with them could effectively amount to admitting that the product had been incorrectly marketed for the past 50 years.

It further submitted that there had been no consumer complaints or reported illnesses associated with the affected rum variants, stressing that the dispute is not about the safety of the products but their formulation, classification and labelling.

The case follows laboratory findings by FSSAI that certain alcoholic beverages contained external artificial or nature-identical flavouring substances.

According to the regulator, such additions can mask the natural characteristics of standardised spirits. FSSAI maintains that products such as rum and whisky should derive their characteristic taste and aroma from permitted ingredients and maturation processes rather than externally added flavouring substances.

On the basis of its findings, the regulator prohibited the sale of several products, including certain variants of Old Monk Rum, McDowell’s No.1 Celebration Rum, Royal Challenge Whisky, Antiquity Blue Whisky, Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky and Old Cask Deluxe Rum.

FSSAI’s position is that adding rum flavour to rum or whisky flavour to whisky could mislead consumers and fall foul of provisions under the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018.

The liquor industry, however, has challenged that interpretation, arguing that flavouring practices have been used for decades and that the regulator’s action amounts to an abrupt disruption of established products.

United Spirits, which makes McDowell’s products, has also approached the Bombay High Court against the regulator’s orders. The court has clubbed its petition with the plea filed by Mohan Rocky Springwater Breweries.

The manufacturers have also pointed to what they say is an important distinction in FSSAI’s findings: the regulator has not alleged that the products are unsafe to consume.

Instead, the dispute centres on whether certain flavouring substances can be used in standardised spirits, how those products should be classified and what information must appear on their labels.

The case could therefore have wider implications for established liquor brands that have relied on longstanding production and flavouring practices.

A bench comprising acting chief justice Ravindra V. Ghuge and justice Gautam A. Ankhad directed the Centre to file its response by August 19.

The matter will next be heard on August 24, when the court is expected to examine the petitions in greater detail.