Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed all food companies to remove '100% fruit juice' claims from their fruit juice labels and advertisements with immediate effect. FSSAI issued a statement on Monday in this regard. Not only this, FSSAI also directed all food companies to eliminate their existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1, 2024. FSSAI said, 'We found that many food business operators (FBOs) are mis-marketing several types of reconstituted fruit juices and claiming that they are '100% fruit juice'. The Indian Council of Medical Research i.e. ICMR has said that the label claims on packaged food can be misleading. Also, health research body ICMR also said that consumers should read the information given on packaged food carefully, so that they are informed and can choose healthy food for themselves.

No provision for claiming '100%'

FSSAI further said, 'After investigation, the food regulator has come to the conclusion that according to Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulation 2018, there is no provision for claiming '100%'. The food regulator said that such claims are misleading. Especially in those conditions when the main ingredient of fruit juice is water. At the same time, the primary ingredient fruit is present in very limited quantity, for which the company claims '100%'. However, companies are reconstituting fruit juice by using water and fruit concentrate or pulp. According to India's food law, it is mandatory for food companies to mention the word 'reconstituted' in the ingredient list in front of the name of juice reconstituted from concentrate. Apart from this, if the nutritive sweeteners are more than 15gm/kg, then the product should be labeled as 'sweetened juice'. Earlier in April, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had asked all e-commerce companies to remove all beverages including Bournvita from their websites and platforms from the category of 'health drink'. The authority had also asked not to misuse words like health drink and energy drink to increase the sale of any beverage.

Info given on the label may be misleading

The Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) under ICMR has issued dietary guidelines for Indians. NIN said, 'The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has strict norms, but the information given on the label may be misleading.' Giving some examples, NIN said a food product can be called 'natural' if it does not contain added colours, flavours and artificial substances and undergoes minimal processing.