The Supreme Court had recently dismissed the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) against the interim order of the Bombay High Court on Canola Oil labelling.
The High Court had ruled in favour of Dalmia Continental Pvt. Ltd. (DCPL) by issuing a stay order against FSSAI’s labeling guidelines for Canola Oil and ordered release of DCPL’s Canola Oil consignments blocked at port.
According to sources privy to the hearing held in January, the judges, Justices Jagdish Singh Khehar and Sharad Arvind Bobde did not even entertain the request of FSSAI to be allowed to withdraw their SLP so that they could continue on final arguments in the Bombay High Court.
After hearing the matter, the Supreme Court ruled that DCPL was in full compliance with existing laws and that FSSAI had no case for mandatory “relabelling” of Canola Oil as ‘Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid.’
V Giri and Dheeraj Nair appeared for DCPL. The advocates stated that by dismissing the SLP, after hearing the matter at length, the Supreme Court left no recourse for FSSAI to proceed with final arguments on merit in the Bombay High Court. Hence, in appealing an interim order of the Bombay High Court, FSSAI lost the case in totality.
Earlier the Bombay High Court on September 16, had ruled in favour of DCPL and against the FSSAI, by issuing a stay order against FSSAI’s labelling guidelines for Canola Oil and ordering release of all DCPL’s Canola Oil consignments blocked at port.
The writ petition was filed by DCPL in the Bombay High Court against the labelling guidelines issued by FSSAI requiring all Canola Oil to be labelled as ‘Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid.’ Imported Canola Oil labelled as Canola Oil was blocked at ports by FSSAI if it was not labelled Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid.
This latest order of the Supreme Court represents a major victory for the industry which had concertedly resisted “relabelling” of Canola Oil as Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid, according to DCPL.
Industry take
The requirement to label Canola Oil as ‘Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid’ is discriminatory since the same labelling requirements are not imposed by FSSAI on other types of oil. In the Standard for Vegetable Oils of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, ‘Rapeseed Oil – Low Erucic Acid’ is the product category and ‘Canola Oil’ is the synonym mentioned in brackets. Several other oils are presented in the same manner in Codex. For example, ‘peanut/groundnut oil’ and ‘corn oil’ are mentioned in brackets alongside their respective product categories ‘Arachis Oil’ and ‘Maize Oil.’ However, both peanut/groundnut oil and corn oil are not labelled and marketed as per these product category names.
Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oil has varying definitions the world over. The EU definition requires a maximum of 5% erucic acid in Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed, whereas the limit for Canola Oil is 2%. Therefore, the two oils differ from one another and their names cannot be used interchangeably.
The term ‘Canola’ is widely recognised amongst Indian consumers as one of the healthiest oils in the market. Rapeseed oil, however, is associated in India with its high erucic acid version, which is considered toxic and injurious to health. Canola Oil has been imported into India under this name since 2007 and is also one of the most preferred cooking oils in USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China and several other countries.
This order is the latest in a slew of adverse orders issued by high courts across the country against FSSAI, which has been acting in a rogue, increasingly arbitrary and obstructive manner with regard to food imports, with huge repercussions to consumers, retailers, importers, restaurants, hotels and food service industries.
Hundreds of containers worth thousands of crores of apples and other fruits, olives, canola oil, beer, wine, spirits, chocolates, fresh meat, seafood, pasta-sauce, mayonnaise, candy, juices, potato chips, spices, soymilk, gluten-free products and gluten, cocoa, compound chocolate and pre-mix for the dairy industry are among the goods blocked at ports due to one or the other objection by FSSAI, according to an industry source.
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