India’s apex food safety authority has directed food business operators (FBOs) to remove any claims of “100 per cent fruit juice” from labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices amid concerns about misleading tags.

Reconstituted juices are created by mixing fruit juice concentrate or pulp with water.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has also instructed FBOs to exhaust all existing pre-printed packaging materials for fruit juices before September 1, 2024, the Union health ministry said on Monday.

“It has come to the attention of the FSSAI that several FBOs have been inaccurately marketing various types of reconstituted fruit juices by claiming them to be 100 per cent fruit juices,” the health ministry said. The FSSAI has determined that there is no provision for making a 100 per cent 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 in limited concentrations or when the fruit juice is reconstituted using water and fruit concentrates or pulp, it said.

The health ministry said the FSSAI has “reminded” the FBOs to comply with the rules under which the word “reconstituted” must be mentioned against the name of the juice that is reconstituted from the concentrate. If added sweeteners exceed 15gm/kg, the product must be labelled “sweetened juice”.