The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has given food companies an additional four months until December to use up all pre-printed packaging materials advertising “100% fruit juice” for their packaged juice products.

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

In June, the FSSAI had asked food companies to immediately remove claims that the juices were 100% fruit from their advertisements and from the labels of packaged products amid growing concerns about misleading claims.

“Based on the various views expressed by the stakeholders, it has been decided to extend the deadline for use of pre-printed packaging materials. The new deadline for use of these materials is now December 31,” the FSSAI said in a communication to the FBOs.

In addition, the regulator stated that products manufactured by FBOs before December 31 “can be sold through all channels in the market until the end of their shelf life.”

First, FBOs were instructed to use up all existing pre-printed packaging materials before September 1.

In June, the FSSAI issued a directive requiring all food business operators to “remove all claims such as ‘100% fruit juice’ from the labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices with immediate effect.”

“The FSSAI has noticed that several FBOs have been falsely marketing various types of reconstituted fruit juices with the claim that they are 100% fruit juices,” the regulator said.

After careful consideration, the FSSAI concluded that there is no possibility of making a ‘100%’ claim under the Food Safety and Standards (Advertisement and Claims) Rules, 2018.

“Such claims are misleading, particularly when the main component of the fruit juice is water and the main ingredient to which the claim relates is present only in limited concentrations or when the fruit juice is prepared using water and fruit concentrates or fruit pulp,” the FSSAI said.

Food business operators have been told they must comply with the standards for fruit juices set out in subsection 2.3.6 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations 2011.

“This regulation states that products covered by this standard shall be labelled as per the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Rules, 2020,” the FSSAI said.

Specifically, the word “reconstituted” must appear in the ingredients list next to the name of the juice reconstituted from the concentrate.

“If the amount of added sweeteners exceeds 15 grams per kilogram, the product must also be labelled as ‘sweetened juice’,” the regulator explained.