FSSAI Orders Dabur To Halt "100%" Claims

Synopsis

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India gave a direction to Dabur India to immediately stop using labels on honey, ghee, coconut oil and related products which claimed to be 100 per cent and deemed the labels to be ambiguous and unverifiable. Dabur will have 15 days to submit an action-taken report after the advisory, issued by the industry, was issued in 2025.

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The regulator states that there is ambiguity in the purity claims

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a warning to Dabur India Ltd to immediately remove lines of products that use the term "100 percent" in its product descriptions as it is not precisely defined, not easily verifiable and cannot be trusted.

It applies to various products such as honey, apple cider vinegar, virgin coconut oil, sesame oil, cow ghee, coconut water and coconut milk sold under terms like "100 per cent Natural," "100 per cent Pure" and "100 per cent Organic".

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The action was announced on social media and is one of the regulator's publicist enforcement actions against a top consumer goods company, in the context of a larger push to regulate advertising claims in the food and beverage industry.

FSSAI has ordered the withdrawal of the identified product(s) and an Action Taken Report within 15 days from the date of the order to Dabur.

The Centre for Science and Environment pointed out in its earlier investigation on the purity of branded honeys that the business of adulteration is sophisticated and a series of tests conducted by the Indian laboratories for parameters set by FSSAI would not be able to detect the same.

The Order was superseded by an Advisory

In May 2025, FSSAI had issued a blanket alert to the industry stating that claims of '100 per cent' were not defined under the existing food safety standards and could be misleading consumers to believe that it was 100 per cent pure.

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The claims are in contravention of the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising & Claims) Regulations, 2018, which regulates the advertisement and labelling of food products, the regulator said.

FSSAI also raised concerns about the use of the Jaivik Bharat organic certification logo on Dabur's Himalayan Organic Apple Cider Vinegar and Organic Honey, which did not have a valid organic endorsement from FSSAI. The regulator was clarifying that the action is targeted at labelling and advertising practice.

Part Of a Wider Enforcement Pattern

This is not the only case. In the last year, FSSAI has been more aggressive in its approach by publishing warnings on its social media platforms for companies instead of relying only on private enforcement and has also been trying to strengthen its monitoring of marketing claims of alcoholic beverage and energy drink manufacturers.

A food and beverage firm was told by the same body of regulators not to use the word “ORS” in the name, label or trademark of any product following a public health campaign by a Hyderabad-based pediatrician, which is another instance of the regulator taking a swipe at words and phrases it believes it is misleading consumers with.

Why does It Matters

The order is a step towards a mandatory regime for packaged food products, and the government's order came as a signal to the packaged food industry in India, which is valued at approximately ₹6 lakh crore, that its voluntary guidelines will be enforced directly on the largest of companies.

It's a reminder to consumers that the words "100 percent," "pure," and "organic" must be certified, not marketed. Other FMCG companies that are using similar language will be at risk of parallel investigation if the Action Taken Report Dabur submits are found to be unsuccessful.