NEW DELHI: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has prohibited Dabur India from selling products such as honey, cow ghee, and edible oils using '100 per cent' claims.
The food regulator said that such labelling is against the law. The regulator affirmed that the use of the 100 per cent claims is in contravention of the FSS (Advertising & Claims) Regulations, 2018, as they are ambiguous, unverifiable and likely to mislead consumers.
FSSAI, in a social media post on Monday, informed that it has issued a prohibition order to Dabur India Ltd over the sale of food products carrying misleading '100 per cent' claims, including honey, apple cider vinegar, virgin coconut oil, sesame oil, cow ghee, coconut water, coconut milk and other such items.
Detailing the violations, the FSSAI said that "food products being sold on the company's website were found carrying misleading '100 per cent' claims such as '100 per cent Natural', '100 per cent Pure', '100 per cent Purity Guaranteed', '100 per cent Organic' and '100 per cent Tender Coconut Water'."
"We have received the FSSAI notice and are in the process of checking the content mentioned in the notice on our website," Dabur India said in a statement.
Dabur Himalayan Organic Apple Cider Vinegar and Dabur Organic Honey were found displaying the Jaivik Bharat Logo without valid FSSAI organic endorsement.
The FSSAI said that it had issued notice to Dabur earlier, directing discontinuation of misleading "100 per cent" claims. However, no satisfactory corrective action was taken by Dabur.
In the last few months, the FSSAI has been using social media to inform the public at large about its enforcement actions against various food business operators, as well as e-commerce companies selling these products on their online marketplaces.
Many alcoholic beverage makers and energy drink manufacturers have come under the regulator's radar.
(With inputs from PTI)