FSSAI notifies major amendments to alcoholic beverage standards, expands scope to ready-to-drink and honey wines

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) First Amendment Regulations, 2025, introducing a series of key changes to the regulatory framework governing alcoholic drinks in India.

These amendments, notified in the official gazette on June 20, 2025, will come into effect on January 1, 2026.

Under the revised regulations, the definition of “alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages” has been formally introduced. These include flavored drinks containing between 0.5% to 15% alcohol by volume, created using spirits or a mixture of spirits and other alcohol-based bases, with or without carbonation.

Such beverages can also contain juices, herbs, spices, sweeteners, salt, and other food additives permitted under FSSAI's broader food standards.

Significantly, the regulations also formalize the category of honey wine or mead, defining it as a fermented alcoholic drink made from an aqueous solution of honey, without the addition of other carbohydrate sources. Mead products can contain herbs and spices and must conform to specific quality standards under the updated norms.

Further, nitro craft beers—a growing category globally—have also been codified. These beers are defined by their mixture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrogen (N₂) gases, with prescribed minimum carbonation volumes.

The amendment also consolidates and expands definitions and classification of country and Indian liquors, providing detailed specifications for both distilled and undistilled traditional beverages, along with an exhaustive annexure listing over 50 indigenous varieties like Toddy, Mahua, Handia, Zutho, and Apong. Blended variants have also been classified distinctly to streamline production and labeling.

"Country liquors or Indian Liquors: Country liquors or Indian Liquors or spirits are alcoholic beverages obtained from distillation of fermentable carbohydrates of agricultural origin. Country liquors or Indian made Liquors may also be of the following types, namely: (i) Plain country liquor or Plain Indian liquor: Plain country liquor or Plain Indian liquor shall be made from alcoholic distillate obtained from fermented molasses, jaggery (Gur), mash of cereals, potato, cassava,fruits, juice or sap of coconut and palm trees, mahua flowers or any other carbohydrates of agricultural origin. (ii) Blended country liquor or Blended Indian liquor: Blended country liquor or Blended Indian liquor is a blend of an alcoholic distillate, rectified spirit or neutral spirit."

Several tables related to compositional and quality parameters, such as permissible alcohol levels, carbonation, and microbiological limits, have been updated to align with the new beverage definitions.

The original Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations were issued in 2018 and last amended in August 2023. The draft version of this amendment was released in May 2023 for public consultation. The final regulations have now been notified after considering stakeholder inputs, in line with Section 92 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.