Dabur and Marico fought an ASCI and court war over honey purity claims

Honey was a Dabur flagship — it had sold Dabur Honey since 1965 — and the pandemic made India's honey category boom as consumers chased immunity foods. In mid-2020 Marico entered with Saffola Honey, advertising one differentiator: that it passed the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) purity test, a standard not mandated for honey sold inside India. Dabur, which marketed its own honey as '100% pure' and NMR-tested, went to the Delhi High Court over Saffola's bottle — and in July 2020 the court agreed the packaging could be confused and issued an injunction.

In December 2020 the Centre for Science and Environment published a sting: it tested 13 major honey brands, most of them passed the tests FSSAI actually mandates, but 10 of 13 — 77% — failed the tougher NMR or TMR screening for added sugar syrup, done at a German lab. Dabur was among the failures. Only Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature's Nectar passed the NMR test. Dabur disputed the finding with a report from instrument-maker Bruker on its own honey, noting it was the only Indian honey company with an NMR machine in its own lab.

The two companies then started firing at each other before ASCI. Marico had already filed on October 1, 2020 against Dabur's 'NMR-tested' advertising, and ASCI upheld it, calling Dabur's claims 'false and misleading by implication and omission' under Chapter 1.4 of its code. Dabur counter-filed, saying market samples of Saffola Honey it tested had failed the NMR test and showed sugar syrup. Of the four honey-category complaints ASCI processed that year, three were upheld — the whole category's purity story was collapsing while demand was at its peak.

ASCI ruled Dabur's 'NMR-tested' claim false and misleading by implication; 3 of 4 honey complaints that year were upheld; the Delhi HC enjoined Saffola's packaging

Both brands' marketing hinged on an absolute purity promise, so a single laboratory finding could break the entire franchise rather than one campaign.

Dabur advertised 'NMR-tested' as a differentiator although NMR was only required for exported honey; ASCI read the omission as misleading consumers by implication.

Each side brought rival lab reports on the other's product, turning food science into a marketing battlefield that neither the regulator nor the courts could cleanly referee.

The escalation from ASCI filings to an injunction and then contempt proceedings meant the brands were litigating each other instead of competing for a demand surge.

When every rival sells the same absolute promise — '100% pure' — that promise becomes a weapon regulators can turn on you. Meet the strictest standard you advertise, not just the one the law mandates.

Dabur filed contempt proceedings against Marico and its directors in June 2021, alleging Saffola's new packaging breached the July 2020 injunction; Marico denied giving any undertaking and called the case an attempt to hinder its launch, with the matter listed for July 14, 2021. Both kept selling and advertising: Saffola leaned on its NMR result, Dabur on its in-house NMR laboratory. The real casualty was category trust — ASCI had upheld three of the four honey complaints it processed that year.