FSSAI gives energy drink brands 90 days to drop the label

FSSAI is holding its line. The regulator issued notices on 1 July to six products asking them to drop the words energy drink from labels and marketing within 90 days, and after the Indian Beverage Association pushed back it granted only the compliance window, not an exemption. Companies have since agreed to comply.

The products named are Red Bull Energy Drink, PepsiCo’s Sting and Adrenaline Rush, Reliance Consumer Products’ Campa Energy Drink-Gold Boost, Hell Energy and Coca-Cola-backed Monster Energy. The regulator’s argument is narrow and hard to fight: India has never notified a product standard for an energy drink category, so the descriptor is misbranding. Therapeutic-sounding claims about vitalising body and mind fall in the same bucket.

This is not a ban on the drinks. India does have a standard for carbonated and non-carbonated caffeinated beverages, and these products can keep selling under it. That standard requires 145 to 300 mg of caffeine per litre, caffeine disclosure per serving, and a warning that the product is not recommended for children, pregnant or lactating women, or anyone sensitive to caffeine.

For operators the work is packaging and listing hygiene, not reformulation. Every online product title, bullet, A plus module, quick commerce tile and brand store banner carrying the old descriptor becomes an exposure. Marketplace catalogues update far slower than print packaging, and platform catalogue teams will not fix your titles for you.

The positioning question is harder. A category built on performance now has to sell taste and occasion. India’s energy drink market is projected at about $1.6 billion by 2028, so that repositioning is being run at scale, in public, on a 90 day clock.