The warning, word for word

The statement

"WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems."

It is a quotation

Not a message to be written in your own voice. Softening it, shortening it or recasting it positively are all the same mistake.

When it applies

To juice, and to beverages containing juice, that have not been processed to reduce pathogens by the specified magnitude. The trigger is the absence of the treatment rather than the presence of a hazard.

The exemptions

A product that achieves the 5-log reduction, or meets the equivalent HACCP process controls, does not carry it. Nor does juice sent for further manufacturing at another facility, where documentation discloses the lack of processing.

That second exemption is narrow

It is about juice going to another processor, not about selling to a cafe or a restaurant. Anything reaching a consumer in the bottle carries the warning.

Retailers will have a view

Some will not stock a product carrying it, some require a signed acknowledgement, and some are entirely comfortable. That is a commercial fact to find out early rather than after a print run.

It is not a reason to avoid the route

Fresh untreated juice is a real and valued product. The warning is the price of selling it, it is honest, and a producer who presents it plainly does better than one who hides it.

Design the label around it

Reserve the space, at a size somebody will read, before the artwork exists. Fitting a mandatory sentence in afterwards is where labels get crowded and warnings get shrunk.

References