June 04,2024
New Delhi: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has ordered all food companies to remove any claim of ‘100% fruit juices’ from the labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices with an immediate effect, it said in a statement.
It has also asked all companies to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1, 2024.
“It has come to the attention of FSSAI that several FBOs have been inaccurately marketing various types of reconstituted fruit juices by claiming them to be 100 per cent fruit juices, ” FSSAI said in a statement on Monday.
“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 per cent’ claim, “it added.
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, the food regulator said.
India’s food laws makes it mandatory for food companies to mention the word “reconstituted” in the ingredient list 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’.
Source: Healthworld