India, Sept. 19 -- A case against Britannia Dairy Pvt Ltd over cheese cubes reported to be infested with fungus has been quashed by the Bombay high court after it found that food safety authorities issued notice to the company nearly six months after the product's shelf life had ended, leaving it unable to exercise its statutory right to seek a referral laboratory test.

A single-judge bench of Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale observed that the delay in issuing notice, the non-supply of the laboratory testing report, the consequent deprivation of the applicant's statutory right to have the food sample tested by a referral laboratory and to file an appeal render the continuation of the proceedings entirely untenable.

"Allowing the crimin...