NEWS
CHINA PROPOSED CHANGES TO LABELLING STANDARDS ON ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
By Tony Zhu
10-3-2023
Source: Xinhua News Agency
China has published a set of new draft regulations labelling of alcohol products, with an emphasis on protecting trade and formulation secrets of domestic producers while maintaining strict food safety standards.
Issued by the National Health Commission (NHC), the draft regulations were based on findings from a three-year study conducted by a working group comprising members from China Food Science and Technology Society, China Food and Fermentation Industry Research Institute, National Food Safety Risk Assessment Centre and the China Alcohol Industry Association.
For domestic fruit wines that are produced from multiple types of fruits, the NHC said the ratio of each type of ingredient or fruit juice may be part of the manufacturer’s technical production secrets.
As such, the draft regulations suggest that it would be sufficient to just declare the total original fruit juice content on the labels.
In addition, indicating product shelf life or expiration dates on labels will no longer be mandated for wine and other relevant blended products that have an alcoholic content of 10 percent ABV or more.
The working group also determined that methanol limits should be implemented for fruit-based wines.
These limits will be applicable to multiple wine variants including white wine, red wine, rose and fermented food wines.
The working group also recommended that limit indices for formaldehyde be removed from the national alcohol regulations.
This is because the beer sector no longer uses formaldehyde in its production process and existing regulations already outlaw the use of formaldehyde as a processing aid.
The draft regulations are open for public comment on the NHC website until 20 March 2023.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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