MUMBAI: In a victory that has left Australian wine major in high spirits, the Bombay high court on Tuesday removed a plug on imports that the food safety regulator had placed on Jacob's Creek wine.
The Australia's largest wine brand had moved the HC against the import ban on a shipment which the food safety regulator FSSAI said contained Tartaric acid.
On Tuesday, the Bombay high court bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla allowed the petition filed by Pernod Ricard India which imports the spirit and disposed of the matter. The company had challenged the lack of no objection certificate (NOC) from food safety standard authority of India (FSSAI) for a shipload of Jacob Creek wine bottles. Iqbal Chagla, counsel for Pernod, which also distributes some other leading international brands, said, "Tartaric acid is not a prohibited additive under the regulations." He said the shipment has been lying at the Mumbai docks since last October or November when the NOC was refused. He said for the last ten years, the wine has been imported without a hitch and added that tartaric acid is found even in fruit juices.
Mehmood Pracha, counsel for FSSAI argued that samples of the shipment when tested, as part of legal safety requirement, were found to contain tartaric acid which is not permitted in proprietary food. "It is presumed that these are standardized and not permitted to mix tartaric acid as it can have dangerous effects which are unknown."
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