New labelling legislation for bottled beers «

New labelling legislation for bottled beers

17 November 2005 at 12:18

New labelling legislation for bottled beers, will come into force on 25th November, (The Food Labelling (Amendment) (No 2 ) Regulations, 2004). This means that certain words now need to appear on labels for bottled beers, (this does not apply to cask beers at the moment). Essentially, in order to comply with current EU Allergen labelling, bottled beers need to list certain ingredients with may cause an allergic reaction – these include cereals that contain Gluten, such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, kamut and their hybridised strains. Isinglass has been exempt from this legislation for the moment, thanks to the hard work of the BFBi and others. Currently, advice from the FSA (Food Standards Agency) and the local Trading Standards authorities suggests that all that is required is the listing of the words “contains barley/wheat/etc” – although adding the words “Contains Gluten” is not a requirement as yet, it probably will be enforced soon for reasons of clarity.
It is suggested that all brewers make sure that their labels that will be applied to bottled beers after 25th November have the words “contains barley, wheat, etc” as necessary, and that all brewers aim to ensure that all new labels have the required information on them. “For example instance, one brewers labels now have on them, in part of the ‘blurb’ : “Brewed from Floor-Malted Optic barley and wheat, (contains Gluten)…”. This covers the current and predicted future legislation. However, we would advice to always check with the local Trading Standards before printing new labels…

One SIBA member has had gold crown corks which have the message “contains barley, wheat, oats, rye and/or kamut” made up for supply to UK brewers. He has spoken to a number of local Trading Standards offices who have all agreed that these would allow excess label stock to be used up, but they probably will not work as a long term solution as the wording does not fall within the plane of sight with the other required information, (name of beer, brewer, %abv, size of bottle, etc).

For more detailed information on the Act and the Legislation, consult the FSA’s website www.food.gov.uk and look for The Food Labelling (Amendment)(England)(No2) Regulations 2004 Guidance Notes (final-August2005)

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This entry was posted on September 9, 2008, 4:05 pm and is filed under Technical/Legislation, Useful documents. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.