A government study has revealed one-in-five fermented drinks do not comply with alcohol content regulations outlined by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) code.
Conducted in 2017 and 2018 by the Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria, the study comprised of fermented beverage samples from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
The FSANZ Code stipulates non-alcoholic beverages and brewed soft drinks are to “contain no more than 1.15 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV)”. The study found 20.8 per cent of the sample had alcohol content greater than or equal to 1.15 per cent with no labelling.
Beverage producers have raised a number of concerns following the study, including ambiguity within the Code in relation to fermented beverages, accuracy of testing and quality of analytics detecting low level alcohol levels, and the current inconsistency across State and Territory Liquor Licensing Acts for permitted levels of alcohol in fermented beverages.
Currently, most jurisdictions define liquor to contain more than 1.15 per cent ABV, however in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, beverages are considered alcoholic if it contains more than 0.5 per cent ABV.
“The need for producers to be familiar with the various Liquor Acts where their products are sold, was therefore emphasised,” the report states.
“Producers should also be aware that the fermented beverages industry is not being targeted by regulators. The interests of regulators is to ensure products are correctly labelled, marketed and sold in accordance with their contents in the interests of health and safety.”
On 16 August, ministers were provided with the findings at the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation, “emphasising the need for products to be appropriately regulated,” as well as ongoing product monitoring in the market.
FSANZ referred Food & Drink Business to the Department of Health for comment.
