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On June 24, 2025, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) released the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) first Amendment Regulations, 2025. Major updates involve honey wine, craft Beer and more. The Amendment will come into force on January 1, 2026.
Key Updates
1. Definitions of alcoholic beverages are introduced.
Definitions of some types of alcoholic beverages are introduced, with key examples shown in the table below. Definitions for Country Liquors and Indian Liquors have also been updated but are not detailed here.
Item | Definition | Remarks |
Alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages | “Alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages” means, flavored beverages having more than 0.5 and up to 15.0% of alcohol by volume, made from spirit or the mixture of spirit or any alcoholic beverage as base by adding natural or nature identical or artificial flavors and food additives permitted under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, or a combination thereof, and fruit or vegetable juice or herbs or spices, or a combination thereof, with or without added sugar or caloric sweeteners or salt and with or without carbonation. | / |
Honey wine or Mead | Honey wine or Mead is a wine produced from the fermentation of an aqueous solution of honey by yeasts without addition of any other carbohydrate source. It may contain herbs, spices or natural flavourings and shall conform to the requirements provided under Table-2 except ethyl alcohol content which may vary between 4% to 15.5%. | The heading “Wine from fruits other than grapes” is revised to “Fruit Wine (other than grape wine) along with Honey wine”. |
Nitro Craft Beer | Nitro Craft Beer is the craft beer having the mixture of CO2 and N2 gas. | / |
2. Requirements are added regarding craft beer.
Characteristics | Craft beer (strong) |
Ethyl alcohol content at 20°C, per cent by volume | More than 5.0 up to 8.0 |
pH | 3.3-4.8 |
Carbon dioxide, v/v, Min | 1.8-3.6 |
Methyl alcohol mg/l, Max | 50.0 |
Copper (mg/l), Max | 2.0 |
Iron (as Fe) mg/l, Max | 5.0 |
Lead (mg/l), Max | 0.2 |
Arsenic (mg/l), Max | 0.25 |
Cadmium (mg/l), Max | 0.1 |
Total plate count, cfu per ml | <100 |
Coliform count, cfu per ml | Absent |
Wild Yeast and moulds, cfu per ml, max | Absent |
Brewer's yeast, ** cfu per ml, max | * |
Notes: “*” means limit not prescribed. “**” does not apply to secondary fermented beer, which shall be declared on the label as secondary fermented beer.
3. New annex categorizes traditional Indian alcoholic products
A new annex is introduced, listing traditional Indian alcoholic beverages along with their raw materials and corresponding product types for regulatory compliance. The annex includes:
Table I: List of Indian Liquors (Distilled Liquor)
Table II: List of Indian Liquor (Undistilled Liquor)
Table III: List of Indian Liquor (Ready to Drink Alcoholic Beverage)
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