EU Plans Sugar Ban in Fruit Juices

The European Commission is considering a Europe-wide ban on sugar in fruit juices under a proposal to amend the Fruit Juice Directive regulation.

Under the plan, adding sugar to juices would be allowed only for nectars and some specific products, but the product labelling must make such an addition clear.

The commission has also proposed to include tomatoes in the list of fruits used for fruit juice production.

Juice packs on supermarket shelves can contain 150gm of sugar per litre, and up to 20% of total contents in bottles of fruit nectar.

Fruit juices make up 10% of all non-alcoholic drinks sold across the European Union, but juices made of concentrates represent 87.6% against 12.4% for pure juices.