Report On Honey Motivated To Malign Image Of Market Leader, Says Dabur

Dabur India Ltd. rejected the reports about the presence of cancer-causing substance in its honey and termed the claims as "motivated" and "baseless."

A high concentration of carcinogenic material was allegedly found in the popular brand Dabur Honey, according to a Zee News report. The samples of Dabur Honey were tested at the Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food at the National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat.

"We stand by the purity of Dabur Honey," Chief Executive Officer Mohit Malhotra said during a post-earnings conference call on Thursday. "Every single batch of Dabur Honey dispatched from our factories complies with all FSSAI parameters, including HMF."

"In fact, Dabur Honey is the only leading honey brand in the country which has been granted the Agmark special certification post inspection and proper due diligence," he said. "This certifies the purity of Dabur Honey. We are also the only Indian honey brand that is packed in (the) U.S. FDA certified facilities."

Outside India, Dabur has a manufacturing presence in eight locations, and its products are sold in over 120 countries across the globe. "We conform with regulations of every country in the world, and there has not been any question of impurity," Malhotra said.

Honey products contribute 6–7% to Dabur's revenue in India and 5% to consolidated revenue, Abneesh Roy of Nuvama Wealth Management said in a note. He doesn't expect a big impact on honey sales over the longer term, but there could be a "small" impact in the short term.

This is not the first time that Dabur's honey has found itself embroiled in controversy for failing to pass quality tests. In 2020, the Centre for Science and Environment claimed that honey sold by 13 brands in India, including Dabur, had been found adulterated with sugar syrup.

The environment watchdog had at that time said that Dabur Honey flunked the stringent nuclear magnetic resonance test, considered the global gold standard for honey, as part of an investigation. Dabur, however, rejected the findings even then, saying that it was the only company in the country to have NMR testing equipment in its own laboratory.

The NMR tests have been made mandatory in India for honey that is meant for export as of Aug. 1, 2020.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India also started a pan-nation drive in 2021 to collect samples of honey and get them tested for adulteration. Queries emailed to the FSSAI remained unanswered till the time of publishing.

"There are about 65 parameters set by India's food regulator, and Dabur complies with all of them," Malhotra said. "So, the report is simply motivated to malign the image of the market leader."

Malhotra highlighted that Dabur gained 500 basis points of market share since the controversy happened last time because of the CSE report, which is a "clear indication that Dabur remains a strong player".