DRINKS, BEVERAGE BRANDS TO LOSE HEALTH TAG IN E-RETAIL

E-commerce platforms Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, etc, will have to remove all drinks and beverages like Bournvita, Horlicks, Protinex, etc, from the category of health drinks following a commerce ministry advisory.

The ministry, on April 10, directed the platforms to do so, saying there is no such thing as ‘health drink’ defined under the country’s food and safety standards laws. Accordingly, the government has asked all e-commerce companies to remove all such drinks and beverages from the health drinks category on their portals.

“National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), a statutory body constituted under Section (3) of the Commission of Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act 2005, after its inquiry under Section 14 of CRPC Act 2005, concluded that there is no health drink defined under FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations submitted by FSSAI and Mondelez India Food,” the commerce and industry ministry’s advisory to all e-commerce companies, said.

Analysts say manufacturers of these brands will not get impacted, as they do not label their products as a health product in their packaging, but in case they have advertisement inventories showing their products as ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritional’, then they will have to withdraw them.

However, since directions by the food safety standards regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), already exist for branding and advertising, it is unlikely there would be any substantial inventory.

In the case of marketplace platforms like Flipkart and Amazon, since they do not hold inventories, it is the sellers on these platforms who will need to make the change in the category. This may take some time as it will need a change in technology solutions. Sellers will need to login into their accounts through which they list their products on these platforms, and make the change.

However, Indian e-commerce platforms like BigBasket, which is an inventory-led firm, will need to implement the measure faster as the onus of making the change will fall on them.

As on Saturday, all e-commerce platforms were still categorising these products as health and nutritional drinks.

Company executives at both the manufacturers’ end and e-commerce firms said they don’t see any impact in terms of sales of these products because of a change in the category. “Consumers search for brands like Bournvita or Horlicks. They do not search through categories, so it does not really impact sales of these products,” executives said.

Earlier, on April 2, FSSAI had directed all e-commerce food business operators (FBOs) to ensure appropriate categorisation of food products being sold on their websites.

It had asked e-commerce platforms not to put dairy, cereal, or malt-based beverages under the health drink or energy drink categories. The body reasoned that the term health drink is not defined in the food laws, while energy drinks are just flavoured water-based drinks under the laws. Moreover, FSSAI said using wrong terms can mislead the consumer and, therefore, asked the platforms to either remove or rectify the ads.

Last month, NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo had written to the commerce ministry, FSSAI and the department of consumer affairs of various state governments and Union Territories and said such beverages, including Bournvita, should not be sold under the health drink category.

2024-04-13T17:31:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd