Remove claim of '100% fruit juice' from labels, ads: FSSAI directs FBOs

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday directed all food business operators (FBOs) to remove any claim of ‘100% fruit juices’ from the labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices with immediate effect.

“We have written letters to all state commissioners to ensure compliance with the mandate,” an official at FSSAI told Business Standard on the condition of anonymity.

“All the FBOs have also been instructed to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1, 2024,” stated a release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The FSSAI said that they had noticed that several FBOs have been inaccurately marketing various types of reconstituted fruit juices by claiming them to be 100 per cent fruit juices.

 

“Upon thorough examination, FSSAI has concluded that, according to the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, there is no provision for making a ‘100%’ claim,” the release stated.

“Such claims are misleading, particularly under conditions where the major ingredient of the fruit juice is water and the primary ingredient, for which the claim is made, is present only in limited concentrations, or when the fruit juice is reconstituted using water and fruit concentrates or pulp,” it added.

The regulation states that the word “reconstituted” must be mentioned against the name of the juice that is reconstituted from the concentrate. Additionally, if added nutritive sweeteners exceed 15 gm/kg, the product must be labelled as ‘Sweetened juice’.

The FSSAI has been at the centre of food-related controversies in recent times. The food regulator had recently cleared spice companies like MDH and Everest spices, stating that it had not found any traces of ETO in the samples. The regulator is also conducting tests on baby food samples after reports of Nestle India adding sugar to its baby food products emerged in April this year.

Popular fruit juice manufacturers declined to comment on the matter by the time of going to press.