Food safety officials have seized around 18,000 boxes of liquor bottles from a Diageo distillery unit in Bengaluru over alleged non-compliance with mandatory food-safety and labelling requirements relating to recycled plastic packaging.<\/p>\n
The action was taken during an inspection of the United Spirits facility, a Diageo India unit, after officials allegedly found that certain PET bottles did not carry the mandatory markings indicating that the recycled plastic used was suitable for food contact.<\/p>\n
The seizure reportedly involved liquor sold in smaller plastic bottles, including 180-ml packs. Several brands were covered by the action, including DSP Black Deluxe Whisky, Smirnoff Zesty Lime Triple Distilled Flavoured Vodka and VAT 69 blended Scotch whisky.<\/p>\n
According to government documents, products valued at around $1.6 million, along with plastic material, were seized during the inspection.<\/p>\n
FSSAI raises concerns over recycled PET markings<\/p>\n
Government officials reportedly found that the plastic bottles carried markings identifying them as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but lacked the prescribed recycled PET symbol required for food-use packaging.<\/p>\n
A government memo reportedly recorded concerns relating to food safety, misleading declarations and misbranding, particularly with respect to the safety of the finished alcoholic beverages.<\/p>\n
The action was stated to have been taken in the interest of public health.<\/p>\n
The inspection also found that the bottles were being described as made from recycled plastic. However, officials allegedly found that the mandatory markings required under the applicable food-safety framework were absent.<\/p>\n
United Spirits disputes safety concerns<\/p>\n
United Spirits, the Diageo India entity, confirmed that certain bottles had been quarantined by authorities pending further directions.<\/p>\n
The company said the bottles had been sourced from a recycler approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and that the mandatory tests had been conducted by the suppliers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur products are completely safe for consumption \u2026 We are engaging with FSSAI for further direction on this matter,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
The regulatory action comes amid increased scrutiny by FSSAI of liquor manufacturers over labelling, flavouring and other compliance-related issues.<\/p>\n
Diageo faces wider regulatory scrutiny<\/p>\n
The Bengaluru seizure follows separate regulatory concerns raised by FSSAI over claims made on some Diageo whisky labels.<\/p>\n
In a notice reportedly issued in July, the regulator questioned a claim that one of Diageo’s whiskies was \u201cmatured in American oak casks\u201d, alleging that the product contained grain neutral spirit as its second ingredient and that a major portion of the spirit was not matured.<\/p>\n
The regulator reportedly stated that describing the complete alcohol as matured in wood casks could mislead consumers and indicated that age-related claims for blended spirits should refer to the youngest spirit in the blend.<\/p>\n
United Spirits has said it remains committed to quality standards and is engaging with FSSAI over the regulator’s queries.<\/p>\n
FSSAI has also taken action concerning certain Diageo and other liquor brands over allegations relating to artificial flavouring and labelling.<\/p>\n
The products reportedly affected by separate regulatory action included Antiquity Blue Whisky and Royal Challenge Whisky manufactured in Madhya Pradesh, as well as certain products manufactured by Inbrew.<\/p>\n
The regulator had also questioned the use of the term \u201cScotch\u201d on certain labels, reportedly seeking greater clarity regarding the nature and characteristics of the Scotch used.<\/p>\n
Regulatory action adds to compliance concerns<\/p>\n
The latest seizure adds another compliance issue to Diageo India’s ongoing engagement with FSSAI.<\/p>\n
The regulator has in recent months intensified scrutiny of food and beverage companies over alleged violations concerning labelling, product claims, ingredients and packaging.<\/p>\n
Diageo has maintained that its products are safe for consumption and said it would continue engaging with the regulator to address the concerns raised during the inspection.<\/p>\n
The seizure and quarantine of the bottles do not, by themselves, establish a final finding of violation. Further action will depend on the regulatory proceedings and directions issued by the competent authorities.<\/p>\n
[Source: Indian Express]\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food safety officials have seized around 18,000 boxes of liquor bottles from a Diageo distillery unit in Bengaluru…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21250],"tags":[42669,4110,42820,25237,42488,42827,42822,40830,42824,42825,42823,42828,42821,38286,22143,42826],"class_list":["post-101748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-diageo","tag-bengaluru-liquor-seizure","tag-diageo","tag-diageo-distillery","tag-diageo-india","tag-dsp-black-deluxe-whisky","tag-food-safety-regulations","tag-food-safety-violations","tag-fssai","tag-fssai-action","tag-liquor-brands","tag-liquor-labelling","tag-misbranding","tag-recycled-pet-bottles","tag-smirnoff-vodka","tag-united-spirits","tag-vat-69"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117081318599110618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}