FSSAI releases draft notification to amend norms for alcoholic beverages

FSSAI, the country’s apex food regulator, has released a draft notification to amend the Food Safety…

FSSAI, the country’s apex food regulator, has released a draft notification to amend the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018, prescribing standards for alcoholic beverages, which were not a part of the previous notification, released in April, earlier this year.

The draft prescribed standards for the tolerance limit for ethyl alcohol content, and standards for Indian brandy amongst other.

Called the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Amendment Regulations, 2019, FSSAI proposed that the tolerance limit for ethyl alcohol content shall be ± 0.3 percent (-0.5 percent for upto 90ml pet bottle) for up to 20 percent, and ±1.0 percent (-1.5 percent for up to 90ml pet bottle) for more than 20 percent above of the declared strength.

In case of wine, the tolerance limit shall be ± 0.5.

The proposed draft states that Indian brandy shall be made either from neutral spirit or rectified spirit, or a mixture of both. On the label, the name Indian brandy shall be followed by a statement under the bracket as made from molasses spirit with a font size that is easily readable. The font size of the words Indian and brandy shall be same.

Further, the definition of single malt or single grain whisky was also prescribed as, “Single malt or single grain whisky is a distillate obtained from fermented mash that uses one particular malted barley or malted grain, respectively, distilled in pot still only, and produced in a single distillery.

The draft also proposes standards for sparkling wine as having carbon dioxide content of minimum 7g/l or 3.5 bar pressure at 20 degree C resulting solely from either the primary or the secondary fermentation of the wine within a closed container, tank or bottle.

The draft also proposed standards for fortified wine, which said, “Fortified wine is a wine with high alcohol content achieved by the addition of alcohol (brandy or wine spirits or neutral spirit of agricultural origin) provided a minimum seven percent comes from fermentation of grapes, grape must and fruits and used as aperitif or dessert wine. Fortified wine may be red or white, dry or sweet.

The last date for the draft notification is August 14, 2019.