Like cigarettes, alcoholic beverages to come with health warning from April 1, orders FSSAI

Come April 1, alcoholic beverages will have a statutory health warning much like the macabre looking prints on cigarette packages that will say ‘Drinking Is injurious to health’. This health warning which was carried from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)in 2018 issued that all liquor bottles will carry cautionary messages on their labels will now come to effect from April 1. 

As per the food regulator's specifications, alcoholic beverage bottles of up to 200 ml should carry the labeled warning message with capital letters no less than 1.5 mm high while the bottles larger than 200 ml will have letters 3mm tall.

"Alcoholic beverages are also regulated under the food safety Act. However, there were no labelling regulations created under the Act so far because of which the manufacturers used to follow the excise laws and standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Now that we have created regulations, these will have to be adhered to," Pawan Aggarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI told Hindustan Times.

The new regulation called the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages Standards) Regulation, 2018 will apply on all distilled alcoholic beverages including brandy, country liquor, gin, rum, vodka and whisky, liqueur or alcoholic cordial, wines and beer.

In addition to the statutory warning, alcoholic beverages containing more than 0.5% alcohol also carry a label declaration about the alcohol content, no nutritional data, no health claim, will not have any nutritional data, health claim and will steer away from words like ‘non-toxicating’ or the likewise.