Dabur, Marico Approach ASCI Over Honey Quality Claims

Mumbai, 6 Dec 2020:

FMCG firms Dabur and Marico have approached advertising regulator ASCI over claims regarding the quality of their honey brands. On Sunday, Dabur said it was filing a complaint against Marico before the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) for claiming that its Saffola Honey sample passed the NMR test.

Dabur claimed Marico's Saffola honey failed the NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) test and was misleading the consumers.

"Dabur is filing a complaint in ASCI against Marico as their Saffola Honey sample from the market has failed the NMR test. Test reports clearly indicate the presence of sugar syrup in Saffola honey. Their claim on NMR test is misleading the consumers," Dabur claimed in a statement.

However, Marico was quick to confront Dabur's claims and said that Saffola Honey was also compliant with each of the quality parameters mandated by FSSAI.

On October 1, Marico had submitted a complaint before the ASCI over Dabur's claims of NMR of its honey which was upheld by the regulator.

"Marico filed an intra-industry complaint before ASCI, against 'NMR TESTED PURE HONEY' claim by Dabur for its product Dabur Honey. The claim 'NMR tested' was considered false and misleading by implication and omission and UPHELD under Chapter 1.4 of the ASCI Code," a Marico spokesperson stated. The firm has also filed another complaint to ASCI on December 3, in which it challenged the claim made by Dabur that its honey has passed the German NMR test.

"The complaint has been admitted by ASCI and taken on record for further hearing," said Marico.

Without naming the brand, ASCI said it has received four complaints against honey brands over the past few months.

"Three of these complaints were upheld as they contravened the ASCI code. The advertisers were unable to provide adequate substantiation for the claims they were making, and hence these advertisements were considered misleading," said Secretary-General Manisha Kapoor in an emailed reply to PTI.

As per the ASCI process, the advertisers are required to alter their claims or withdraw the advertisements. While, Dabur in its statement said that the recent clarification by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has clearly reinforced that their 22 mandatory tests, including specific test like SMR, are the most stringent tests globally to detect all the potential adulterants and sugar in honey.

"Dabur has cleared all the above FSSAI-mandated tests, including SMR, besides voluntarily conducting NMR test periodically to ensure that our consumers get 100 per cent Pure honey with no added sugar/syrups or any other adulterants," it said.

On December 2, Delhi-based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE ) said 10 of the 13 brands flunked the stringent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) test considered as the global gold standard for honey as part of an investigation.

The brands whose samples flunked the test include household names like Dabur, yoga guru Ramdev Baba's Patanjali, Zandu, Baidyanath, Apis Himalaya and Hitkari. Three brands -Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature's Nectar passed the test.Business Today