FSSAI cracks down on fake ‘ORS’ drinks

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed all the food safety officers in the states to conduct immediate verification drives across e-commerce platforms, retail outlets within their jurisdiction to identify food products violating the orders by using the term ORS in product names or labels.

The FSSAI has issued orders stating that despite the directions, it has come to the notice that certain fruit-based beverages, ready-to-serve drinks, electrolyte drinks and similar ORS-related products continue to be marketed and sold in various e-commerce platforms, retail outlets, including local grocery stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, and modern trade stores, under brand names or descriptions containing the term ‘ORS’ in violation of the aforementioned orders.

In order to ensure effective enforcement and to prevent misleading practices at these level, all the authorities concerned have been asked to issue necessary instructions to designated officers and field officers to conduct immediate verification/inspection drives across e-commerce platforms, retail outlets within their jurisdiction to identify food products violating the above orders by using the term ‘ORS’ in brand/product names or labels.

The FSSAI executive director Dr Satyen Kumar Panda has asked the officials to ensure that such non-compliant products were immediately removed from sale and initiate appropriate regulatory action against the concerned FBOs as per the provisions of the FSS Act, 2006.

Submit a comprehensive action taken report (ATR) to this office at the earliest, detailing the inspections conducted, violations detected, corrective actions initiated and status of product removal from these platforms.

Furthermore, it has come to notice that certain Food Safety Officers were initiating actions, including discontinuing the sale of WHO-recommended Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) products, even though the regulatory directions issued by FSSAI.

The FSSAI orders issued on October 14 and 15 apply only to fruit-based beverages and similar products misleadingly marketed as ‘ORS’ that do not conform to the WHO-recommended ORS formulation.

It is reiterated that WHO-recommended ORS products, notified as ‘drugs’ under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, fall entirely outside the regulatory purview of FSSAI, and therefore the October 2025 orders do not, in any manner, regulate or restrict legitimate ORS (drug) products.

Accordingly, all Food Safety Officers, Designated Officers, and State/UT Food Safety Authorities should ensure that no interference is made with the storage, distribution, or sale of WHO recommended ORS (drug) products; enforcement activities should remain strictly confined to non-compliant food products presented or labelled as ‘ORS’ and no sampling, seizure, or lifting of WHO-recommended ORS (drug) products should be carried out.