The Bombay High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against Britannia Dairy Private Limited concerning allegations that Britannia Cheese Cubes (Sour Cream and Onion) were infested with fungus, holding that the company was denied important statutory safeguards under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The case arose from a sample of Britannia Cheese Cubes (Sour Cream and Onion) purchased by a food safety officer from a Big Bazaar outlet at R City Mall in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, on July 30, 2013. The product had been manufactured and packed by Schreiber Dynamix Dairies Limited and was marketed by Britannia Dairy.
The product was packed on February 12, 2013, with a stated shelf life of nine months from packaging, making November 12, 2013 the end of its shelf life. A Food Analyst's report dated August 14, 2013, subsequently described the sample as “infested with fungus.”
Britannia Dairy approached the High Court seeking to quash the criminal case pending before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mazgaon, Mumbai. The company argued that the regulatory process had deprived it of the opportunity to challenge the laboratory findings through the statutory referral-laboratory mechanism.
The High Court noted that the relevant notice to Britannia Dairy was issued only on May 17, 2014, several months after the product's shelf life had expired. Because the product was no longer within its shelf life, the company could not effectively exercise its statutory right to have the sample tested by a referral laboratory.
The court also took note of the fact that the Food Analyst's report was not supplied to Britannia Dairy. According to the judgment, the combination of the delayed notice, non-supply of the laboratory report and consequent loss of the opportunity for referral testing and appeal deprived the company of procedural protections available under the FSS Act.
Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale, who pronounced the judgment on September 11, held that the continuation of the criminal proceedings in the circumstances would amount to an abuse of the court process. The High Court therefore exercised its inherent powers to quash the criminal case and the order issuing process dated July 28, 2014.
The judgment does not amount to a finding that the original food-safety allegation was false or that the cheese was scientifically established to be safe. Rather, the court found that the prosecution could not continue because the statutory procedural safeguards had not been properly preserved.
The case highlights the importance of timely regulatory communication, preservation of food samples within their shelf life and access to statutory testing and appeal mechanisms. For dairy and food businesses, it also underscores that food-safety enforcement must be accompanied by strict compliance with the procedural requirements established under the law.
Source: Dairynews7x7 20 Sep, 2026 Read full story here
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