The beverage industry has urged the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to allow them to make “100 per cent” juice claim in products that have no “added sugar”.

The Indian Beverage Association (IBA), the leading industry body of beverage makers, has pointed out that this is in line with the regulations of many international markets where the “100 per cent juice” term is recognised.

In its petition to the food safety authority, the beverage industry body has said that 100 per cent fruit juice, whether fresh or reconstituted, which does not contain any “added extraneous sugar, sugars or nutritive sweeteners”, should be allowed to make the claim of being “100 per cent fresh juice”.

It added that such fruit juices are known as “unsweetened juices.”

In June, FSSAI had ordered beverage companies to remove claims of “100 per cent fruit juice” from labels as well as advertisements of reconstituted fruit juice products. The food safety authority noted that the regulations have no provisions allowing companies to make a “100 per cent fruit juice” claim and hence are misleading.

Sources said that the beverage industry in its petition to the food safety authority officials has pointed out that countries such as the US, Canada as well as World Health Organisation’s nutrient profile model recognises “100 per cent fruit juice”.

Juice concentrates

Typically, manufacturers extract juice from the fruit and then reduce the water content by evaporating the naturally present water to formulate a concentrate. Industry players pointed out this process is undertaken to make it less cumbersome to transport the juice concentrates to manufacturing facilities. Fruit juice makers then reconstitute the juice by adding back the water at the facilities, which is then sold to consumers. In India, the 100 per cent fruit juice market size is still nascent and worth less than ₹500 crore, as per some estimates.

The industry has impressed on the food safety authority that any product that that contains added sugar or nutritive sweeteners should not be allowed to make the 100 per cent fruit juice claim

In its advisory issued in June, FSSAI had said that beverage companies must comply with the standards for fruit juices as specified in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards & Food Additives) Regulation, 2011. It had also pointed out that the regulations state that in the ingredient list, the word “reconstituted” must be mentioned against the name of the juice that is reconstituted from the concentrate.

Related Topics