The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed all food business operators (FBOs) to remove ‘100% fruit juice’ claims on their products. The order covers all claims printed on labels as well as advertisements of the items. According to FSSAI, if the added nutritive sweeteners are more than 15 g/kg, the product should be labelled ‘sweetened juice’. Further, the directive states that brands should ensure that while preparing the ingredient list, the word “reconstituted” is mentioned against the name of juices reconstituted from concentrate.
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FSSAI has pulled up brands for their “misleading” claims about products marketed as “100% fruit juices”. In fact, these are often various types of reconstituted fruit juices. FSSAI has clarified that “the main constituent of fruit juices is water and the primary constituent for which the claim is made is present only in limited concentrations, or when fruit juice is reconstituted using water and fruit concentrate or pulp.” It has clarified that as per the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, there is no provision for making a ‘100%’ claim.
FSSAI has also directed FBOs to phase out all existing pre-printed packaging material before September 1, 2024, as part of compliance with the new directive.
Earlier, in April, FSSAI had asked FBOs to reclassify proprietary food products being sold as “health drinks” and “energy drinks”. It directed them to “rectify the misclassification by removing or de-linking such beverages or drinks from the category of ‘health drinks/energy drinks’ on their website and place such products in the appropriate category under the existing law”.
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