Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reopening the comment period on its draft guidance for industry declaring “evaporated cane juice” as an ingredient on food labels.
- This review was fueled by the argument that sweeteners derived from cane syrup should not be listed on food labels as evaporated cane juice, as the sweetener is not juice as juice is defined in Federal regulations.
- The FDA is reopening the comment period for 60 days to gather information on the basic nature and characterizing properties of the ingredient, the methods of producing it, and the differences between this ingredient and other sweeteners. Those who want to weigh in can send their thoughts by mail or email starting March 5, 2014.
Dive Insight:
There have been a string of law suits against companies using the term "evaporated cane juice" on their products.The suit against Chobani was dismissed in late Feb. under the opinion that it is reasonable to expect the consumer to understand that they are not trying to pass a derivative of cane sugar as something else. However, other brands like Blue Diamond, Amazon Preservation Partners, Healthy Beverage LLC, Wallaby Yogurt, and Trader Joe's are still involved in their suits. The FDA's re-examination of evaporated cane juice indicates that ingredient transparency is a concern for the administration, an unfortunate sign for some of the companies under fire.