Beverages with low fruit and vegetable juice content or with only added flavoring should be labeled on the front of the packaging.
On the 2nd of this month, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the newly enacted Regulations Governing the Labeling of Packaged Beverages Claimed to Contain Fruit and Vegetable Juice: starting July 1 of the year after next, packaged beverages with an added fruit and vegetable juice content of 10% or more shall conspicuously indicate the juice content percentage on the front of the outer packaging; those below 10% shall be labeled "fruit (vegetable) juice content less than ten percent" or wording of equivalent meaning, or shall directly indicate their juice content percentage.
As for packaged beverages that "contain no added fruit or vegetable juice but provide fruit or vegetable flavor," those whose packaging displays fruit or vegetable illustrations (images) or fruit or vegetable names shall be labeled "no fruit (vegetable) juice"; those whose product name contains a fruit or vegetable name shall indicate "flavor" or "flavour" in the product name.
Hsu Hui-yu, director of the Food and Nutrition Division of the John Tung Foundation, which has long promoted labeling for fruit and vegetable juices, affirmed the aforementioned new labeling rules, but held that for beverages containing no juice, the words "flavor" and "flavour" should be the same size as the product name. In addition, when the juice content is less than ten percent, real fruit and vegetable images may not be used.
Hsu Hui-yu said that the John Tung Foundation conducted a survey a year ago and found that more than sixty percent of consumers, upon seeing fruit and vegetable images on outer packaging, would mistakenly believe the juice content was very high, and children in particular were even more easily misled; if the images were replaced, the proportion dropped to ten percent, and she hoped the competent authority could further improve the relevant regulations.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that the Regulations Governing the Labeling of Packaged Beverages Claimed to Contain Fruit and Vegetable Juice were drafted in accordance with Article 22 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, and will take effect on July 1 of the 104th year of the Republic of China.
These labeling regulations govern packaged beverages that indicate fruit or vegetable names or display fruit or vegetable illustrations (images) on the product's outer packaging. In addition to the aforementioned provisions on labeling the juice content percentage or labeling that a product "has only flavor but contains no juice at all," for mixed fruit and vegetable juice beverages with a total fruit and vegetable juice content of 10% or more, the product name labeling shall disclose all fruit and vegetable names, and those names shall be listed in order from highest to lowest according to content; where the product name does not disclose all fruit and vegetable names, it shall be labeled "mixed fruit juice," "blended juice" or wording of equivalent meaning.
The juice content percentage, "no fruit (vegetable) juice," "fruit (vegetable) juice content less than ten percent" or wording of equivalent meaning shall have a font and color clearly different from the background color, and the font size shall be handled in accordance with the labeling provisions for juice content percentage under National Standard CNS 2377.