The Food Safety and Standards Authority in India are finding it difficult to put regulations on wines. Since it does not contain a list of ingredients on the bottle nor any expiry dates, how can consumers be sure it is safe to drink? The issue brought by the Indian authorities should not only effect those locally, but it also has international weighting as well.
Up until now, India has been trying to battle this issue by collecting taxes from consumers based on the total volume and percentage of alcohol in the wine purchased. This issue was left at that and the state had no other concerns for it. However, the Food Safety and Standards Authority in India had some different plans. Since early August 2011, a new law was passed, with the help of the Authority, for consumable goods to provide appropriate labels. It was not until December 2013 that the law became effective around India.
For many wine producers, these new laws are causing problems. Some of the requirements are near impossible to meet, such as;
- The exact address of production: many wineries in a village are landmark enough to not need a specific road or house number.
- Lack of tie-ups: Liaising with other similar foreign laboratories so that tests once conducted anywhere are valid here too, thereby reducing the duplication of reports and expenditure. For now, everything is tested in spite of being compliant with.
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