The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has given beverage companies, including PepsiCo, Reliance Consumer Products and other manufacturers, 90 days to remove the term "energy drink" from their products following notices issued over misbranding and misleading claims.
On July 1, the food regulator issued notices to six companies selling products labelled as energy drinks, stating that it has not notified any standard for the "energy drink" category.
The notices were issued to Red Bull Energy Drink, PepsiCo's Adrenaline Rush Energy Drink, Reliance Consumer Products' Campa Energy Drink Gold Boost, Sting Energy Drink, Hell Energy and Coca-Cola-backed Monster Energy.
According to sources, representatives of leading beverage companies under the Indian Beverage Association met the FSSAI Chief Executive Officer and other officials last week to discuss the notices. Food safety officials from Gujarat and Maharashtra also attended the meeting.
Sources said the industry did not receive any relief from the regulator. The companies have been given 90 days to comply with the order and remove the term "energy drink" from product labels. The industry sought time to arrange new packaging material.
While issuing the notices, FSSAI said the Food Category System under its regulations is not intended for product naming or labelling and reiterated that no standard exists for products marketed as energy drinks.
The regulator also said functional or therapeutic claims such as "vitalises body and mind", "enhancing focus", "boost energy levels" and "aid in general weakness" are not permitted for food products under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and related rules.
Separately, FSSAI said it has suspended the licence of Westend Agro Products Pvt Ltd after an inspection found alleged violations, including alteration of manufacturing dates, expiry dates, batch numbers and misleading label declarations on several food products.
The regulator said it received a complaint alleging alteration of manufacturing and packing dates, fraudulent relabelling and sale of misbranded food products. It also found that Westend Agro Products and Westend Corporation were operating from the same premises.