'Flavouring neutral alcohol isn't right in spirit'

NEW DELHI: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has said alcoholic beverage manufacturers cannot add "rum flavour" to rum or "whisky flavour" to whisky and market them as standard products, saying the practice misrepresents the true nature of the beverage and misleads consumers.The regulator said the issue is not the use of permitted flavouring substances, but addition of the flavour of the standardised alcoholic beverage itself, which serves no legitimate purpose. It said the characteristic taste and aroma of products such as rum and whisky should develop naturally through the base ingredients, fermentation, distillation and maturation. However, inspections found that some manufacturers were producing beverages largely from neutral alcohol, which has no characteristic flavour, and then adding identical flavouring substances to recreate the taste and aroma of rum or whisky. Such products, FSSAI said, should be labelled as "rum-flavoured spirit" or "whisky-flavoured spirit", with the front of the pack clearly disclosing their true nature. Laboratory testing of rum and whisky samples from multiple manufacturers found the addition of artificial or nature-identical flavours that masked the products' natural characteristics, rendering them sub-standard under existing regulations, FSSAI said.Based on findings, it prohibited the sale of products manufactured by units of Mohan Rocky Springwater, United Spirits, INBREW Beverages and Associated Alcohol & Breweries. It also inspected Mandexi Distilleries & Breweries in Goa and issued notices to six producers in Maharashtra.FSSAI also objected to the "7 years old blended" claim on an Old Monk XXX Rum variant, saying the product predominantly contained neutral, unmatured spirit, while matured rum spirit accounted for less than 5% of the blend. It said the issue is not representative of the entire industry, noting that many manufacturers continue to produce beverages in compliance with the prescribed standards.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.