Food biz operators gain 4 more months to finish packaging materials claiming ‘100% fruit juices’

New Delhi: Food regulator FSSAI has given four more months till December-end to food business operators to exhaust all pre-printed packaging materials claiming '100% fruit juices' in their packaged juice products.

The decision to extend the current deadline of August 31 has been taken following consultations with stakeholders.

In June, FSSAI had asked food business operators (FBOs) to immediately remove claims of 100 per cent fruit juices in advertisements as well as labels on packaged products, amid rising concerns over misleading claims.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said in an advisory to FBOs, said, "Based on the various representation received from stakeholders, it has been decided to extend the deadline for using pre-printed packaging materials. The new deadline for utilising these materials is now December 31, 2024.”

Additionally, the regulator said that products manufactured by FBOs before December 31, 2024 can be "sold in the market across all channels until the end of their shelf life." Initially, FBOs were instructed to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1, 2024.

In June, FSSAI had issued a directive mandating all FBOs to "remove any claim of '100fruit % juices' from the labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices with an immediate effect." "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% fruit juices," the regulator had said.

Upon thorough examination, FSSAI had concluded that, according to the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, there is no provision for making a '100%' claim.

"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," FSSAI had said.

FBOs were told to comply with the standards for fruit juices as specified under sub-regulation 2.3.6 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulation, 2011.

"This regulation states that products covered by this standard must be labelled in accordance with the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020," FSSAI had said.

Specifically, in the ingredient list, 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 regulator had said.