Hindustan Unilever (Horlicks, Boost): FSSAI record

Update, 3 Nov 2026: on 17 Oct 2026 FSSAI announced a show-cause notice to HUL over two Horlicks variants. For Horlicks Women's Plus Chocolate (400 g) it called 'Nutrition for Strong Bones', 'Clinically Proven to Help Improve Bone Strength in 6 Months' and 'Improves Bone Health' misleading or non-compliant, and said 'No Added Sugar' was misleading because the product contains maltodextrin. For Horlicks Mother's Plus Kesar (400 g) it cited 'Healthy Birth Weight' on the label and in an advertisement. A show-cause notice asks for an explanation; it is not a ban, and no reply has been reported.

Hindustan Unilever's malt-drink brands sit next to Bournvita in the 2024 'health drink' episode, but HUL's part was voluntary. When FSSAI advised e-commerce operators on 2 Apr 2024 that 'health drink' and 'energy drink' had no definition under the FSS Act, HUL announced that Horlicks and Boost would drop the 'health food drink' descriptor and be marketed as 'functional nutritional drinks'. No order, notice or direction was issued to the company at that time.

The only other item on record is a laboratory finding, not a regulatory one. The Citizens Protein Project 2, published in Medicine on 14 Nov 2025, tested Horlicks Protein Plus and reported 38.1 g protein per 100 g, undeclared fructose of about 1.5 g per 100 g and taurine at 26.5 g per 100 g. The study's authors raised taurine as a possible way of inflating nitrogen-based protein readings; the product's protein content itself was broadly in line with its label. Units are as reported in the paper.

HUL has no recall, test failure recorded by FSSAI, or licence action in 2024 to 2026. Neither Horlicks nor Boost is banned.