Energy drinks banned but only on paper, not on shelf

While a top official of the FSSAI confirmed that they had banned Monster, Tzinga and Cloud 9 from the market in May, The Indian Express was able to purchase cans of these products at stores from Srinagar to Bangalore last week.

On May 8, the FSSAI ordered the immediate recall of Monster energy drinks after finding that they contained a “combination of caffeine and ginseng which have an opposing effect on the human body”.

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Starting June 5, The Indian Express was able to buy cans of Monster from stores in Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Srinagar — most of the shopkeepers provided receipts for the purchase.

Similarly, on May 12, the FSSAI ordered the immediate withdrawal of two other energy drink products Cloud 9 and Tzinga. The Indian Express purchased cans of Tzinga from stores in Jalandhar and Ludhiana, and Cloud 9 from a store in Srinagar.

In fact, The Indian Express purchased a can of Monster from a store in Delhi’s upscale Defence Colony one day after Monster Energy India Private Limited (MEIPL) wrote to FSSAI on June 4, saying its distributor “has advised all its 245 delivery points (which includes sub distributors and retail chains) to stop sale of Monster Energy products”.

When contacted, FSSAI CEO Yudhvir Singh Malik said that the label ‘energy drink’ itself was “misleading”. “These are stimulants which stimulate your central nervous system. We have ordered the withdrawal of three such products, Monster, Tzinga Energy and Cloud 9, after we found that they had made misleading claims,” he said.

Malik added that he was aware of at least five-six international studies that have questioned the safety of energy drinks. “These are from reputed journals. Our job is to lay down science-based standards for food products so that their manufacture, distribution, sale and import are regulated and it is safe for human consumption,’’ he said.

“The decision to withdraw… these few energy drinks products was taken after a proper assessment was done by our scientific panel,” he added.

When contacted, MEIPL officials referred all queries to a lawyer who said that an authorised company representative would return the call. Repeated attempts to get in touch with the company later failed.

Neeraj Kakkar, founder-CEO, Hector Beverages, the makers of Tzinga, said that there had been no “production and billing” of Tzinga in the last 45 days.

“Our teams have already gone to most of the 9,500 outlets, where Tzinga was sold by us in last six months, and recalled the stocks. We have taken all possible measures to comply to the recall order which includes mass media, advertisements, personalised contact, hiring extra manpower and vehicles to complete this procedure,” Kakkar said.

“There are some outlets where Tzinga was previously sold through indirect distribution and we are in the process of recalling the product from those outlets. We believe 95 per cent of recall is complete and only 5 per cent of the stock is still left in the market, which would also be completed in next few days. We are regularly updating FSSAI on all our efforts.”

The manufacturers of Cloud 9 — Pushpam Foods and Beverages Pvt Ltd — were not available for a comment.
(With ENS in Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Srinagar)