More Stories

Informist, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court Monday refused urgent relief to United Spirits Ltd., which had sought a stay on the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's ban on selling certain rum products over concerns related to labelling and flavouring. The high court sought the reply of the government and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and listed the case for hearing on Aug. 24. The high court said it will hear both the parties on Aug. 24 and might pass an order on interim relief.

 

The case relates to the food safety regulator alleging that United Spirits' Indian-made foreign liquor brands McDowell's No. 1 Rum, Antiquity Blue Whisky and Royal Challenge Whisky contain unauthorised artificial or nature-identical flavouring and carry descriptions that could mislead consumers. The regulator has said that the products containing external rum flavour should be marketed as flavoured spirits rather than standard rum.

 

The food safety regulator had cited the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018, which require standardised alcoholic beverages such as rum and whisky to possess their characteristic taste and aroma. It said that adding "rum flavour" to rum or "whisky flavour" to whisky misrepresents these standardised products. Its labelling rules require the true nature of the product to be disclosed on the front of the pack, the food safety regulator said. 

 

United Spirits argued that adding rum flavouring to rum has been an industry practice for decades and that the food regulator couldn't suddenly stop the sale of products that have been sold for years without finding any health risk. "Suddenly, they come and tell us that you can add orange flavour, you can add lime flavour, but in rum, you cannot add rum flavour because the only taste should be of the natural thing," said the company.

 

United Spirits also questioned the legal authority of the food safety regulator's officer to issue the prohibition orders. The company argued that Section 36(3)(b) of the Food Safety and Standards Act does not independently empower the officer to prohibit manufacture and sale. 

 

At 1310 IST, shares of United Spirits Ltd. were up 1.0% at INR 1,527.70 on the National Stock Exchange.  End 

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.