Читать книгу Food Regulation - Neal D. Fortin - Страница 157

The TTB only regulates those wine products that contain 7 percent or more alcohol. The FDA regulates wine coolers and other non‐malt beverages containing less than 7 percent alcohol by volume. Therefore, wine coolers that purport to contain unfermented fruit or vegetable juice are covered by 21 C.F.R. § 101.30 and are required to bear a percentage juice declaration.

Wine coolers that do not contain unfermented juice are not covered by this requirement unless they purport to contain juice by means of advertising, labeling statements, vignettes, or physical characteristics. Thus, if a wine cooler does not contain any juice, has labeling that makes clear that it contains flavors rather than juice, and does not bear a vignette that implies fruit juice content, it is not subject to 21 C.F.R. § 101.30. Noncarbonated beverages that purport to contain juice—but do not, in fact—contain any juice are required by 21 C.F.R. § 102.30 to state that they contain no juice.⁹⁰

A Double Standard

The requirement for a percentage juice declaration on wine coolers has been called unfair because the same requirement does not apply to most other alcoholic beverages including spirits‐based and malt‐based coolers, which compete directly against wine coolers. FDA has commented:

The agency advises that the labels of alcoholic beverages (those that contain 7 percent or more alcohol by volume and malt beverages) are regulated in accordance with the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (27 U.S.C. 205) administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms [now TTB] and are controlled differently from wine coolers. The labeling of wine coolers, like other beverages that contain less than 7 percent alcohol by volume, is regulated under the [Food, Drug, and Cosmetic] act. To the extent that these statutes differ, the products are regulated differently in other labeling aspects as well as in declaration of percentage juice content. It is not up to FDA, but to Congress, to decide that the same requirements must apply to wine coolers, other alcoholic beverages, and malt based beverages.⁹¹