The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has constituted an Expert Group for the purpose of formulating the standards of the energy drinks. Setting up of standards will involve, inter alia, consultation with stakeholders, risk assessment etc. It is, therefore, not feasible to indicate a definite time frame, said FSSAI.The composition of Expert Group members includes Dr Amarinder Singh Bawa, director, Defence Food Research
Laboratory, Mysore, B Sesikeran, Director,National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Dr V Prakash, Director,Central Food Technological, Research Institute, Mysore, Dr Mukul Das, Dy Director, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, Commissioner, Food and Drugs Administration, Maharashtra, Commissioner, Food Safety, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Dr Joseph I Lewis, head, R&D, Marico Ltd, Mumbai.
The scope of duty of the members will include examination of the scientific literature and global position on use of caffeine and non-carbonated beverages and their labelling, recommendation of the limit of caffeine in energy drinks and non-carbonated beverages under food regulations, suggestion of suitable safety and products standards of energy drink.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority will be operational in the next three months. Replying to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the effective implementation of the Act would go a long way in checking adulteration in food items . The Act provides for punishment of six months to life imprisonment. He said over seven per cent adulteration has been found in food items on an average. It is based on samples collected in the last five years.