Industry braces for rules on label disclosure of wine additives
Posted September 19th, 2008 by sean@bevx.com
Tom Wark, at Fermentation, alerted us yesterday to the British newpaper Telegraph's article on "unauthentic ingredients" in wine in the form of oak chips, but this was only the visible tip of a gigantic iceberg roiling the waters in Great Britain over the use of additives, and about to spill over bigtime to our shores.
In what looks like a testing of the waters, the defense of the use of wine additives a few days ago by the CEO of Britain's largest wine industry lobbying group, The Wine and Spirit Trade Association, signaled that the alcoholic beverage industry is taking seriously threats to require labels to disclose all the ingredients in the bottle, and is fighting back.
The CEO of the 320-member group of producers, wholesalers, bottlers, retailers and others, Jeremy Beadles, told Channel 4's Dispatches (a kind of Sixty Minutes program) that "The winemaking process is governed by strict regulations designed to ensure products meet stringent health and safety standards." Dispatches aired a segment highly critical of additives, of which the European Union allows at least 50, in the form of flavorings, preservatives, enzymes, fining agents and so on. The Dispatches program provoked a storm of controversy throughout England, with bloggers like Jamie Goode yesterday slamming Channel 4 for producing "a desperately poor programme," while consumers praised it for alerting them to facts previously unknown. Check out this commentary from Jane Moore, a columnist for The Sun newspaper, who's in favor of complete disclosure on labels. She wrote, "One producer told us it [disclosure] would be tantamount to 'commercial suicide,' presumably because it might put the customer off and result in lower sales."
On this side of the pond, Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm famously came out for full label disclosure last December. The federal Tax and Trade Bureau issued a proposal of rulemaking (Notice No. 62, updated by No. 64) that would require disclosure of all potential "allergens," which seems to be simply a synonym for additives. Wine Institute, California's leading association of producers, strongly opposes such a new law, as evidenced by this remarkable 34-page letter to TTB from Wine Institute's President, Robert P. Koch.
At this point, Wine Institute's Gladys Horiuchi says she has no idea when or if TTB will issue their final ruling. But TTB spokesman Art Resnick says there will be one, sooner or later. The holdup: the Food and Drug Administration is holding hearings on its Food Allergen Awareness program, "and we [TTB] need to be consistent with what FDA does," Resnick asserts. TTB, in other words, is dotting its "i"s and crossing its "t"s so they can build up a scientifically airtight case for mandatory disclosure. With heavyweights like TTB and Wine Institute squaring off, the food allergy lobby mobilizing, and bloggers just waiting to stir things up, this smackdown is going to be interesting.
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Steve HeimoffIn what looks like a testing of the waters, the defense of the use of wine additives a few days ago by the CEO of Britain's largest wine industry lobbying group, The Wine and Spirit Trade Association, signaled that the alcoholic beverage industry is taking seriously threats to require labels to disclose all the ingredients in the bottle, and is fighting back.
The CEO of the 320-member group of producers, wholesalers, bottlers, retailers and others, Jeremy Beadles, told Channel 4's Dispatches (a kind of Sixty Minutes program) that "The winemaking process is governed by strict regulations designed to ensure products meet stringent health and safety standards." Dispatches aired a segment highly critical of additives, of which the European Union allows at least 50, in the form of flavorings, preservatives, enzymes, fining agents and so on. The Dispatches program provoked a storm of controversy throughout England, with bloggers like Jamie Goode yesterday slamming Channel 4 for producing "a desperately poor programme," while consumers praised it for alerting them to facts previously unknown. Check out this commentary from Jane Moore, a columnist for The Sun newspaper, who's in favor of complete disclosure on labels. She wrote, "One producer told us it [disclosure] would be tantamount to 'commercial suicide,' presumably because it might put the customer off and result in lower sales."
On this side of the pond, Bonny Doon's Randall Grahm famously came out for full label disclosure last December. The federal Tax and Trade Bureau issued a proposal of rulemaking (Notice No. 62, updated by No. 64) that would require disclosure of all potential "allergens," which seems to be simply a synonym for additives. Wine Institute, California's leading association of producers, strongly opposes such a new law, as evidenced by this remarkable 34-page letter to TTB from Wine Institute's President, Robert P. Koch.
At this point, Wine Institute's Gladys Horiuchi says she has no idea when or if TTB will issue their final ruling. But TTB spokesman Art Resnick says there will be one, sooner or later. The holdup: the Food and Drug Administration is holding hearings on its Food Allergen Awareness program, "and we [TTB] need to be consistent with what FDA does," Resnick asserts. TTB, in other words, is dotting its "i"s and crossing its "t"s so they can build up a scientifically airtight case for mandatory disclosure. With heavyweights like TTB and Wine Institute squaring off, the food allergy lobby mobilizing, and bloggers just waiting to stir things up, this smackdown is going to be interesting.