After several meetings with the FSSAI, in which the company reportedly gave sufficient information about the wines which are being exported to around 100 countries without any problems, the company had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court which was heard on Tuesday.
Iqbal Chagla, counsel for Pernod Ricard which also imports other wine labels like Mumm’s Champagne and Brancott Estate in New Zealand and popular spirits including the range of Chivas Regal reportedly said, "Tartaric acid is not a prohibited additive under the regulations." He also said the shipment has been lying at the Mumbai docks since last October or November when the NOC was refused by the FSSAI. He said for the last ten years, the wine has been imported without a hitch and added that tartaric acid is found even in fruit juice, according to the report by Times of India.
Mehmood Pracha, counsel for FSSAI, argued that samples of the shipment, when tested as part of legal safety requirement, were found to contain tartaric acid which is not permitted in proprietary food.
As of today, the HC has reserved its order which is expected in the next 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, the company is apparently out of stocks. According to market reports, they would have lost the sale of about 15-20,000 cases due to no stocks. Though the company refuses to comment on the sales or the cases, they sold an estimated amount of 65,000 – 70,000 cases that might make Jacobs Creek the biggest import in India- despite the loss of sales. Unfortunately for the company, this unexpected obstacle has stalled introduction of new brands scheduled for earlier this fiscal year, which have been on hold till the judgement is received.
The matter being subjudice, it cannot be commented upon but all the importers are hoping that the judgement is in favour of their biggest competitor. According to them, FSSAI has created mayhem by being opaque, unhelpful, unfair and inconsistent, especially in the labelling requirement which was a single cause of sales loss last year, resulting in sales being less than the previous year due to shipments rejected on the grounds of labelling alone. delWine has collected pictures of current labels in the market for different wines duly approved by FSSAI. They are mostly different and with different information but yet accepted due to the lack of consistency or a model label.
There are no detailed wine laws established in the country so far. Tartaric acid is allowed in winemaking in most warm climate areas. It will be interesting to see what steps have been taken to check out the tartaric acid in the domestic wines. Due to the hot weather, domestic producers are reportedly using tartaric acid to an extent that is considered acceptable for the flavour in the wine. One hopes FSSAI has taken into account what OIV specifies in its recommendations. India had joined OIV a few years ago as a member. Most wine producing members go by the OIV recommendations and Codex specifications.
With FSSAI shutting down several other ready-to-eat-noodles brands after Maggi, one hopes the wine industry is not in the process of being shut down as well, as some doomsayers have been saying. A point to be noted is that FSSAI was created by the Congress government and not BJP as they feel there is some hidden agenda to stop the imports and others feel it is a covert move to introduce prohibition.
Fortunately, we have one of the best and most fair-minded and objective system of justice in India and once the FSSAI comes down from it's high horse and becomes an organisation with knowledge-based people, not the power-based decision makers, they will be very effective in their job. After all, nobody can deny that we want safe foods to eat and the law is made just to ensure that. It’s a matter of time till the draft regulations are issued by FSSAI and once they are approved there will be, hopefully, more transparency and logic in the implementation.
Watch out for the judgement of the Honourable Court which will be reported in delWine.
Subhash Arora
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