European consumers will soon be able to benefit from clearer labelling of fruit juices, where '100% juice' really means no additives.

The News: 100% juice - exactly as advertised

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15795278/n001-111219-001-en_mf.srt

Drinking fruit juice is good for your health.

Bars like this one are popping up  all over Europe, serving fruit juice cocktails.

But what's true for freshly pressed juice

may not always be the case  for bottled products.

Even if the label says, ‘100% fruit juice’,  several additives are often included.

It was time to clarify the information  provided to consumers.

Sugar will not be able to be added to  fresh fruit juice and juice from concentrate.

There are three essential juice categories:

fresh juice, juice from concentrate  and nectars.

They have been well established  and defined.

‘No added sugar’ was already true  in the case of pure fruit juices.

But these words will no longer appear  on the packaging of sweetened nectars,

even if they only contain  artificial sweeteners.

Under the new directive,  when it becomes applicable,

addition of sugar will no longer be allowed.

The use of this type of claim will  no longer be allowed for any fruit juices.

Jan Hermans represents European  fruit juice producers in Brussels.

For him, the new guarantees  provided to consumers

are largely going in the right direction.

Some of the labelling requirements  are better spelled out

so that cheating or misleading  the consumer through packaging

will no longer be allowed, or will no longer  be possible, to put it that way.

Without greatly changing the habits  of either producers or consumers,

the new European rules  on fruit juice labelling

will clarify the information  available on these products

that enjoy increasing popularity  with Europe's consumers.