The sugary drink being pedalled as ORS can cause neurological complications, further dehydration, and acute kidney injury.
Published Oct 26, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 26, 2025 | 8:49 AM
Dr Sivaranjani Santosh wants the members of the public, too, to put pressure on authorities so that only the WHO-recommended formula ORS is provided to patients.
Synopsis: Doctors are worried about sugary drinks being marketed instead of ORS. It could turn fatal, and doctors want the FSSAI to take a strong stand, even as the Delhi High Court has asked the authority to hear the company before making a final decision.
The battle began when a young mother walked into Dr Sivaranjani Santosh’s clinic in Hyderabad in 2017. The mother had brought her child, visibly tired and weak, to the paediatrician.
The child had been suffering from an upset stomach. Dr Sivaranjani realised — to the mother’s surprise — that the child was dehydrated. The mother had been providing rehydration solution, popularly known as ORS, to the child. Still, the child’s condition worsened.
It was then that the mother and doctor realised that the child had been provided with a sugar-loaded drink, instead of WHO-approved ORS. The drink, which the child was getting, lacked the vital electrolytes of a true oral rehydration solution. Dr Sivaranjani found that the mother had been feeding the child ORSL instead of ORS.
That day, Dr Sivaranjani’s lone fight against a billion-dollar brand began. It was one voice against the silence of a system that had forgotten to protect the simplest lifesaving therapy known to medicine, the ORS.
Eight years later, her relentless campaign finally forced action. On 14 October 2025, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a landmark directive, warning that no drink or beverage could use the term “ORS” unless it matched the precise WHO-approved composition of a medical oral rehydration solution.
For public health professionals, this was not just a policy; it was justice delivered. For Dr Sivaranjani, it was the moment she had been trying to achieve.
The battle, however, did not end there. Barely three days later, it took another turn.
On 17 October, the Delhi High Court granted interim relief to JNTL Consumer Health India Pvt Ltd, the maker of ORSL. The court directed the FSSAI to hear the company’s representation before enforcing the order against it. The product continued to stay on the shelves even on Saturday, 25 October.
“FSSAI should have made sure that the ORSL products are off the shelves, but even today, medical stores are selling ORSL. Why didn’t FSSAI immediately send instructions to all the states?” Dr Sivaranjani asked while speaking to South First.
Thank you! I thought for a moment that I don’t have it any more in me, to fight! But when I saw your message and messages like your’s, I felt I can continue to fight tooth and nail, with the support of Indians like you! Thank you! It means a lot for me, and for the children of… https://t.co/tmx8wrih7Z
— Dr.Sivaranjini (@dr_sivaranjani) October 25, 2025
Meanwhile, doctors across India read that order with disbelief. From paediatric wards in Delhi to public hospitals in Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, messages of support began to flood in for Dr Sivaranjini.
“This is not about one brand or one tetrapack,” said Dr Preethi G, a senior paediatrician in Bengaluru. “This is about how long we have allowed commercial interests to tamper with something meant to save lives,” she told South First.
Meanwhile, several doctors and influencers decided to collaborate with Dr Sivaranjani to take up the cause and put pressure on the FSSAI to take immediate action. Food pharmer, aka Revant Himatsingka, did reels on how “fake ORS has been allowed to sell 180 crore of their stock first. These fake products have up to 10 times more sugar than real ORS, and can be dangerous for kids,” he said.
“I request all Indians to unite and support us in our fight against false marketing that can be life-threatening,” Himatsingka said while urging all to support Dr Sivaranjini by adding pressure so that no fake ORS is sold to parents.
Like food pharmer, several other influencers took to social media and posted videos, helping to identify the difference between WHO-approved ORS and other sugary drinks.
Within days, hundreds of doctors had taken to social media, sharing images of the WHO-approved ORS formula and warning parents: “Look at the label. Check the sugar. Your child’s life depends on it.”
Several media houses also came in support of Dr Sivaranjini.
Padmashree Dr Sanjeev Bagai, Chairman, Nephro Clinic, came out strongly against FSSAI in a television discussion. “We know that acute gastroenteritis with or without diarrhoea and intestinal infection kills more than six to seven lakh children every year in India. It is one of the most common reasons for the death of children aged below 5, especially in rural India. It is largely what we see in smaller children with co-morbidities,” he said.
“Now, you already have a label that is carrying ORS. According to me, this is misleading. This is a mischievous advertisement campaign to piggyback on a label that is WHO-standardised. This by itself is bad,” he added,
Explaining the consequences of the sugary drink, he said, “In a dehydrated child, there is already stress, infection, and in this very vulnerable state, you are subjecting a child to a high concentration of glucose with an abnormal concentration of sodium and potassium. This causes hyperglycemia which is high glucose, and the blood becomes much thicker. This can cause problems in the gut and worsen the condition.”
He added that it can cause neurological complications, further dehydration, and acute kidney injury. “This is an ideal recipe for disaster,” he pointed out.
He also said that many paediatricians prescribe ORS, but children are often given ORSL instead.
Coming strongly against JNTL, he said, “ I have no shame in naming the company. The first question is, why were they given a licence?”
Calling for strict action, he said, “Heads should roll, and FSSAI itself is directly culpable in this. You cannot subject children, comprising 36% of the Indian population, to ransom. This is utter nonsense!”
Even doctors who had stayed quiet for years are speaking up. “It took one woman’s persistence to expose what the rest of us had normalised,” said a senior physician from AIIMS. “If a paediatrician’s warning takes eight years to be heard, what does that say about our health governance?”
FSSAI’s directive is, by all accounts, a strong move — but its enforcement remains in limbo.
For now, one company’s petition has delayed implementation against it, while the rest of the industry watches closely.
Doctors fear that this pause could be used to dilute momentum, allowing rebranded or slightly altered drinks to continue misleading consumers.
“The high court didn’t overturn FSSAI’s directive — it only paused the order for one petitioner,” clarified a Delhi-based legal expert.
Meanwhile, the FSSAI on Thursday, 23 October, issued a clarification denying social media claims that it had allowed the sale or disposal of ORSL.
“It is being wrongly claimed that FSSAI has permitted or consented to the disposal or sale of ORSL,” the regulator said, urging the public to refer to the official court order available on the Delhi High Court website.
The clarification follows the high court’s interim order granting temporary protection to JNTL Consumer Health (India), the maker of ORSL. Justice Sachin Datta’s order pauses the enforcement of FSSAI’s 14 and 15 October directives — which barred use of the term “ORS” in non-medical drinks — until the company’s representation is heard and decided by the regulator.
The interim relief allows JNTL to sell its existing stock, valued at around ₹180 crore, while FSSAI reviews the case.
The Delhi High Court has given JNTL ONE WEEKS time to submit it’s representation, and the FSSAI had to decide on it in accordance with the law, after giving JNTL(AN INDIAN SUBSIDIARY OF KENVUE WHICH IS A SPIN OFF OF JOHNSON&JOHNSON) an opportunity of hearing and duly taking into… pic.twitter.com/TlqVbt9WcM
— Dr.Sivaranjini (@dr_sivaranjani) October 25, 2025
However, production of new high-sugar ORSL variants remains suspended, and the regulator’s ban continues to apply to all other manufacturers.
However, responding to FSSAI’s clarification, Dr Sivaranjani said, “I have tweeted that FSSAI has agreed or consented to the request by JNTL to listen to their proposal, and maybe the FSSAI could have denied that, and this stay order would not have come. Now, FSSAI should dispose of this ASAP.”
She also urged the members of the public and other doctors to write to the Supreme Court of India.
“Let there be a strong law to protect future generations as well. Nothing except the WHO-recommended formula ORS and water should be available in the pharmacies, medical facilities, and schools. ORS/DRS/QRS, etc, should not be there on the labels of any other drink sold in supermarkets/online commerce platforms unless it conforms to the WHO-recommended ORS formula,” she said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
