Plant-based beverage companies seek time to remove ‘milk’ from labels
- ByAyushi Ray | September 7, 2021
Plant-based beverage companies seek time to remove ‘milk’ from labels. These companies involve RAW Pressery, Epigamia, Goodmylk and Urban Platter, and they have all seeked time to comply with norms by India’s food regulator that prohibit the use of dairy terminology to label their products. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, in an order dated September 3, gave the companies 15 days to improve or modify their product labels, saying the use of dairy terms for a product that is not milk, a milk product or a composite milk product is not allowed. “We are hoping that the FSSAI will give us some more time so that our products are not wasted,” said Anju Srivastava, founder of Wingreens Farms, which acquired RAW Pressery this year. “We have a huge amount of inventory in the channels and bringing it back and reprinting the labels requires time.”
Some companies have moved to change the labels and listings on e-commerce platforms. “It is easier to comply in e-commerce as we have to change the picture of the product and also replace the work ‘milk’ with ‘drink’ in the listings. But it’s a huge logistical challenge to change the product labels,” said Chirag Kenia, founder of Urban Platter. There are allegations that the crackdown on plant-based beverage companies was at the bidding of dairy cooperatives, which see these new-age products as a threat to their market. The soya, almond and cashew-based beverage business has been growing in India recently with the emergence of veganism and fitness awareness among consumers.
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