“Set wine sale stds to become effective post-June 2015”: IGPB to MoFPI

The Indian Grape Processing Board (IGPB) sent a proposal to the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) to formulate standards to which Indian wine producers would have to conform if they want to continue selling it across the country after June 2015. 

The ministry forwarded it to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which recommended that the standards be formulated to the scientific committee, which, in turn, recommended the same to the labelling committee. 

These committees would scrutinise the standards, which would come into effect six months hence. As of now, there are no standards for the production of various kinds of wines, including dry wines, sweet wines and liquor wines, which are either locally-made or imported.

Confirming the development, IGPB chairman Jagadish Holkar informed FnB News that FSSAI would draft the final notification and put it in the public domain, but added that the word wine wasn’t properly defined.

“Even for various kinds of wines, there are no standards in India. Standards must be set along the lines of those wine producers adhere to overseas. In addition to grape juice, wine is made of 70 ingredients, including salts and heavy metals, but there are no standards for these,” he added.

“When the standards come into effect, unreliably-produced or oxidised wines, which are inferior, would not be sold in the Indian market. They would also ensure that sub-standard wines from overseas won’t be dumped into the country,” Holkar stated.

Informing that the size of the wine market in India was pegged at Rs 2,000 crore, Holkar said that most of the wine producers and exporters in the country were from the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

“It is necessary to set new standards to ensure the sale of safe products, which would be beneficial to the consumers’ health,” he added. Rajesh Jadhav of Rajdheer Wines Pvt Ltd, Nashik, hailed the proposal as a step in the right direction.

“However, apart from the standards for wines, it is imperative that they are handled properly. Wineries would obviously ensure compliance with the standards, but when the bottles leave them, the wine makers would have no control over the product,” he added.

“If the distributors and retailers don’t store it properly, its quality would deteriorate,” Jadhav stated, suggesting that India adopt the method of conducting periodic checks and audits at wineries, as is the practice in France.