Popular bars in Delhi found to be serving ‘expired beer’
NEWDELHI: The next time you pick up a bottle of your favourite beer at a restro-bar in the city, don’t forget to check its expiry date.
The excise department, in multiple raids conducted in eight months — between August 19, 2017 and April 13, 2018 — has found nine popular hangouts of Delhi serving stale beer to their customers.
The excise department provided the i nformation i n response to a question raised in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday by AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi.
The department said it had been conducting surprise inspections, but did not reveal the name of the places where stale beer was being served.
In the written response to Ravi’s question, the department said 214 pubs, bars and restaurants were inspected by the enforcement teams in the last one year. Of these, 94 restro-bars were found violating excise rules, the department said.
It also mentioned that nine restro-bars in Vasant Vihar, Rajouri Garden, Saket, New Friends Colony, Punjabi Bagh, Laxmi Nagar, Connaught Place and Janakpuri were serving ‘expired beer’ to customers.
An excise department official said beer crates were inspected for the date till which it was fit for consumption.
For example, labels of beer bottles of some brands say “best before six months from the date of manufacture”, while others read “best before twelve months from date of manufacture”. If the product is served beyond this time limit, it can harm the consumer, the official said.
“We have taken action against the establishments found violating the advice printed on the labels of the beer bottles,” the official said.
Apart from this, police complaints were lodged in connection to five cases in which alcohol was served to underage customers.
In Delhi, the legal drinking age is 25 years.
In June 2015, the department had submitted a proposal to the AAP government, proposing to bring down the legal drinking age to 21 for consumption of beer and wine.