The Delhi High Court has directed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the central government, and the Delhi administration to clarify their stance on public interest litigation targeting the deceptive sale of non-dairy analogue products as genuine paneer.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Nitin W Sambre and Justice Sanjay Singh issued formal notices on the plea on Wednesday, granting the respondents six weeks to submit their respective replies. The petition was moved jointly by Ridhima Singh and Avlokiteshwar Padmapani Sidharth.
Nutritional Gaps And Consumer Deception
The petition brought to light that paneer holds a distinct legal status as a standardised dairy product under national food safety regulations. In contrast, dairy analogue substitutes rely on non-milk components, including vegetable fats and vegetable oils, which do not match the nutritional value of actual dairy.
According to the petitioners, patrons dining at restaurants and hotels have no practical mechanism to verify whether the food served to them contains authentic paneer or synthetic substitutes. The plea maintained that while customers who knowingly purchase transparently labelled non-dairy analogues exercise an informed choice, consumers ordering paneer are legally entitled to receive products conforming strictly to statutory dairy standards without unannounced non-milk replacements.
**Court Notes Ongoing Festive Sampling**
Citing the surge in demand during the festive season, the petitioners urged the bench to issue immediate orders directing authorities to carry out aggressive market sampling and laboratory analysis of paneer and related preparations.
Addressing this request, the bench pointed out that enforcement bodies are already conducting such monitoring drives, observing that official statistics documenting these inspection activities had already been submitted to the court.
Calls For Mandatory Disclosures And Local Restrictions
The petitioners asked the court to prohibit the manufacture, distribution, sale, and serving of dairy analogue paneer across the capital, noting that state governments in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh have already launched regulatory crackdowns against non-dairy substitutes.
Additionally, the plea urged the court to mandate explicit disclosure protocols across the food service industry. Under the proposed measures, restaurants, hotels, cloud kitchens, caterers, local eateries, and digital food commerce platforms would be required to prominently notify customers whenever non-dairy substitutes or analogues are used in their preparations.
