Food & Beverages

Food and beverage industry is one of the fast growing in India. Besides the local produce and its multi-tier wholesale and retail, a large part of the industry consists of import and export of food products.

India has consolidated its food laws and has enacted the law in harmony with the international laws and standards. India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulates and monitors the manufacture, processing, storage, distribution, sale and import of food to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. Besides the specific statute, there are numerous regulatory requirements to be complied with by the food business operators including safety, sanitary and hygienic requirements. Additionally, there are various registrations and licenses required by the companies intending to start the food business or import. Every food item requires a specific registration / license number from FSSAI.

Indian law does not permit any wholesale dealer, distributor or importer to sell, distribute or display any food product in the packaged form that is misbranded and non-compliant with the statutory labelling requirements. For instance, Indian law requires that the ingredients of food and beverages including alcohol content in liquors must be specified on the label.

The labelling requirements for packaged food products in India are governed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.

Further, the labelling requirements in India vary in different states, such as certain states require specifying the statutory warning in the local language, etc. Moreover, there are different labelling requirements for the retails packages and the wholesale packages.

Our lawyers have the expertise and updated knowledge of the laws, regulatory requirements and challenges, and industry practices. Therefore, we are able to provide most practical and solution-oriented advice to our clients.

Our client base include both Indian and international companies who have existing businesses or are intending to export to India or set up their franchise in India, or the small-scale food business operators.

We regularly advise clients on statutory packaging and labelling compliances, review their labels, print and media advertising contents, etc., to ensure statutory compliance, advise on import of food products in India, custom bonding and clearance, storage requirements after import, additional labelling requirements before shelfing the products in Indian stores, etc.

We also provide transactional assistance, assist in enforcement actions, handling statutory notices and complaints, help the client understand and comply with regulatory requirements, provide support as and how they require to respond to emergencies and so on.