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Informist, Thursday, Apr. 3, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on Dabur India Ltd.'s petition against a notification directing all food business operators, including the petitioner, to remove the claim of "100% Fruit Juice" from labels and advertisements of reconstituted fruit juices with immediate effect. The high court will next hear the case on Apr. 23.

 

Justifying its "100% fruit juice claim", Dabur said that reconstituted fruit juices are being manufactured using concentrated fruit juice or pulp of respective variant, which involves the process of extraction of fruit juice from respective fruits and concentrating it under vacuum. Prior to packaging the juice in consumer packs, suitable quantity of water for maintaining the essential composition and quality factors of the juice is added to the concentrated fruit juice, hence it is called reconstituted fruit juice, Dabur said. 

 

The added water is of potable quality and quantity added is as per guidelines specified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, said the petitioner. In the manufacturing of reconstituted fruit juice, no extra sugar is added, and the sugars present in reconstituted fruit juices marketed by the petitioner are naturally occurring in the fruit, said Dabur India.

 

The fruit juice content in reconstituted juices is the same as that in expressed juices, said the petitioner. The process of manufacturing as well as the finished product is in accordance with the FSS Standards & Additives Regulations and reconstituted fruit juices are manufactured in accordance with a licence granted by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, said the petitioner. Hence, the petitioner makes a declaration of "100% Fruit Juice" on the package of reconstituted fruit juice, Dabur India added.

 

"the Petitioner’s ACTIV Range of Reconstituted Fruit Juices does not contain any added sweeteners and has 100% fruit juice content; hence, the said claim is factually true and not misleading," said Dabur India. The petitioner as well as other operators had made several representations to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India between June and December in respect of seeking extension of the time limit to exhaust the existing pre-printed packaging materials in the June notification. Based on the representations, the time limit has been extended to Mar. 31, said the petitioner.

 

Upon issuance of the notification and extension notifications, without prejudice to its rights and contentions and under protest, Dabur India decided to modify the artwork or the label of its product category, namely reconstituted unsweetened fruit juices, said the petitioner. Dabur India undertakes to continue with the proposed modifications in its labels pending final disposal of its petition, said the petitioner. The issue of the notification without consultation and without issue of draft notification seeking comments or inputs caused confusion in the market, and the trade partners of the petitioner such as Reliance Retail, IndiGo Airlines, and Flipkart, stopped procuring fruit juices from them and sought to return the stocks before Sept, 1, the cut-off date for implementation of the notification, said Dabur India.

 

At 1029 IST, shares of Dabur India were down 6.6% at INR 463.25 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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