The Soft Drinks Industry Levy Regulations 2018

Sugar content condition: vegetable juice

6.—(1) The following are to be treated for the purposes of Part 2 as vegetable juice—

(a) juice from vegetables;

(b) juice from concentrate from vegetables;

(c) concentrated juice from vegetables;

(d) water extracted juice from vegetables;

(e) dehydrated or powdered juice from vegetables;

(f) vegetable purée; and

(g) concentrated vegetable purée.

(2) “Juice from vegetables” means the fermentable but unfermented product—

(a) which is obtained from the edible part of a vegetable;

(b) which has the characteristic colour, flavour and taste typical of the juice of the vegetable from which it comes;

(c) which does not incorporate parts or components of pips, seeds or peel unless they cannot be removed by good manufacturing practice;

(d) which has not been manufactured using any treatment other than an authorised treatment; and

(e) to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(3) Juice from vegetables includes juice—

(a) which is produced from one or more kinds of vegetables mixed together;

(b) which contains restored flavour, pulp and cells, extracts or edible oils (or any one or more of them) obtained by a suitable physical means from the same species of vegetable;

(c) which contains edible salts, spices, aromatic herbs and vinegar; and

(d) which is mixed with vegetable purée during production.

(4) “Juice from concentrate from vegetables” means the product—

(a) obtained by reconstituting concentrated juice from vegetables with potable water that meets the criteria set out in Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption, as those criteria are amended from time to time;

(b) prepared by a suitable physical process that maintains the essential physical, chemical, organoleptical and nutritional characteristics typical of the juice from vegetables produced from the species of vegetable from which it comes;

(c) which has not been manufactured using any treatment other than an authorised treatment; and

(d) to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(5) Juice from concentrate from vegetables includes products—

(a) in which the concentrated juice from vegetables used in its production is mixed with—

(i) juice from vegetables;

(ii) vegetable purée; and

(iii) concentrated vegetable purée;

(b) which contain restored flavour, pulp and cells, extracts or edible oils (or any one or more of them) obtained by a suitable physical means from the same species of vegetable; and

(c) which contain edible salts, spices, aromatic herbs and vinegar.

(6) “Concentrated juice from vegetables” means—

(a) the product obtained from juice from vegetables by the physical removal of a specific proportion of its water content, being at least 50% where the product is intended for direct consumption;

(b) which has not been manufactured using any treatment other than an authorised treatment; and

(c) to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(7) Concentrated juice from vegetables includes products which contain restored flavour, pulp and cells, extracts or edible oils (or any one or more of them) obtained by a suitable physical means from the same species of vegetable.

(8) “Water extracted juice from vegetables” means the product—

(a) obtained by diffusion with water of—

(i) pulpy whole vegetables whose juice cannot be extracted by any physical means; or

(ii) dehydrated whole vegetables;

(b) which has not been manufactured using any treatment other than an authorised treatment; and

(c) to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(9) “Dehydrated or powdered juice from vegetables” means the product —

(a) obtained from juice from vegetables of one or more vegetable species by the physical removal of virtually all of its water content;

(b) which has not been manufactured using any treatment other than an authorised treatment; and

(c) to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(10) “Vegetable purée” means the fermentable but unfermented product obtained by a suitable physical process such as sieving, grinding or milling the edible part of whole or peeled vegetable without removing the juice, and to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(11) “Concentrated vegetable purée” means the product obtained from vegetable purée by the removal of a specific proportion of its water content, in respect of which, if flavour has been restored to it, such flavour has been recovered from the same species of vegetable, and to which no calorific mono-saccharides or di-saccharides have been added.

(12) In this regulation—

“authorised treatment” means a treatment which falls within the following paragraphs of Schedule 10 (authorised treatments) to the Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars (England) Regulations 2013—

(a)

paragraph 1; and

(b)

paragraph 2 but as if—

(i)

reference to “fruit” where it first occurs were to “vegetable”; and

(ii)

for “concentrated fruit juice” to the end of the paragraph were substituted “concentrated juice from vegetables, if the product obtained in this way is juice from vegetables or juice from concentrate from vegetables”;

“pulp and cells” means the products obtained from the edible parts of the vegetable without removing the juice; and

“vegetable” means any kind of vegetable (excluding tomatoes) that is sound and appropriately mature and—

(a)

fresh; or

(b)

preserved by—

(i)

physical means; or

(ii)

a treatment, including a post-harvest treatment,

and also includes aromatic herbs and aloe vera.

(13) In this regulation, reference to a flavour which is restored or recovered is a reference to a flavour—

(a) which is obtained during the processing of vegetables by applying suitable physical processes (including squeezing, extraction, distillation, filtration, adsorption, evaporation, fractionation and concentration) to obtain, retain, preserve or stabilise the flavour quality; and

(b) which is obtained from the edible parts of the vegetable.