Image used for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: GRN Somashekar
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a directive requiring all food business operators (FBOs) to remove all “100% fruit juice” claims from labels and advertisements of regenerated fruit juices with immediate effect. All FBOs have also been directed to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials by September 1.
“FSSAI has come to the attention of several food business operators who have wrongly advertised various types of reconstituted fruit juices by claiming that they are 100% fruit juices,” the statement said.
FSSAI has noticed that several food business operators have wrongly advertised various types of reconstituted fruit juices by claiming that they are 100% juices. After a thorough investigation, FSSAI concluded that under the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, there is no provision for making a ‘100%’ claim. Such claims are misleading, particularly where the main ingredient of fruit juice is water and the main ingredient claimed is only present in circumscribed concentrations, or where the fruit juice is reconstituted using water and fruit concentrates or pulp.
Food business operators have been directed to comply with the standards for fruit juice under section 2.3.6 of the Food Safety and Standards (Standards for Food Products and Food Additives) Regulation 2011.
“This regulation states that products covered by this standard must be labeled in accordance with the Food Safety and Standards (Labeling and Display) Regulations 2020.” – we read in the statement.
In particular, in the list of ingredients, the word “reconstituted” must be listed next to the name of the juice reconstituted from concentrate.
“Additionally, if the amount of added nutritional sweeteners exceeds 15 g/kg, the product must be labeled as ‘Sweetened Juice,’” the regulator said.
FSSAI said it is committed to protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety standards across the country.
(with PTI inputs)
