Leatherhead Food Research is helping manufacturers address uncertainty over challenging global regulations for soft drinks and fruit juices with a bespoke industry guide.

The aim of the Global Regulatory Guide on Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices is to help manufacturers and retailers make sense of the complex regulatory environment and enhance their response to it. Requirements can vary significantly between countries and much of the legislative information is held in multiple documents issued by various authorities in native language only. Leatherhead’s multilingual regulatory services department has extracted and translated pertinent details to compile the single source guide.

"Many soft drinks manufacturers and retailers that we speak to are looking to expand quickly into new geographies," says Tony Hines, VP global regulatory services at Leatherhead. "In order to achieve this, it is vital that they have a good grasp of relevant local legislation and regulation. The sector is under immense pressure and this has been exacerbated by the responses of some governments to issues surrounding health and added sugar. Our new guide spotlights issues that they need to be aware of to help ensure compliance."

The publication covers regulations that govern soft drink and fruit juice production and marketing in more than 50 countries. It encompasses composition and labelling requirements as well as rules surrounding additives and flavourings.

The guide can be used to highlight discrepancies between territories. For instance, since April 2015 fruit juices sold in the EU cannot contain added sugars, yet safe and suitable dry nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners are allowable in the US.

The guide answers the needs of a broad spectrum of food industry professionals; from food technologists and product development specialists to regulatory affairs experts and exporters.