Remove "100% Fruit Juice" Claims From Labels, Ads: Food Authority's Latest Directive

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed all Food Business Operators (FBOs) to remove claims of '100% fruit juices' on their products. This mandate includes any claims printed on labels as well as advertisements for the items. As per the FSSAI, if added nutritive sweeteners exceed 15 gm/kg, the product should be labelled 'Sweetened juice'. Moreover, the directive states that brands must ensure that the word "reconstituted" is mentioned against the name of the juice reconstituted from the concentrate, while drafting the ingredient list.
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The FSSAI has called out brands for their "misleading" claims about products marketed as "100% fruit juice". In reality, these often turn out to be various types of reconstituted fruit juice. "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 FSSAI explains. It has clarified that according to the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, there is no provision for making a '100%' claim.

The FSSAI has also instructed FBOs to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1, 2024, as part of compliance with the new directive.

Before this, in April, FSSAI asked FBOs to reclassify Proprietary Food being sold as "Health Drinks" and "Energy Drinks". It directed them to rectify the misclassification "by removing or de-linking such drinks or beverages from the category of 'Health Drinks / Energy Drinks' on their websites and place such products in the appropriate category as provided under the extant law".
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