If ingredients must be labelled on food items, why can wineries get away with not listing egg, fish or milk on their labels with their wine? I’m allergic to fish and one glass can affect me. I’ll often ask to look at the wine label in a bar and always when I purchase wine but often it doesn’t state the ingredients. My son is old enough to drink and he’s anaphylactic to dairy. It concerns me he will be served up something that could kill him when wine and alcohol and servers don’t make this obvious. Truth in labelling and education around this is important, yet not mandatory. Why?
– Brenda, Victoria
Kat George says: The labelling of alcohol beverages is a contentious issue. There are regular calls for reform, primarily to do with the amount of information required on ingredients, health and nutrition. Despite being classified as food, alcoholic beverages are exempt from most of the labelling requirements that food products must comply with in Australia.
As you have rightly identified, there are significant safety concerns when comprehensive information about the content of alcohol isn’t readily available.
Alcohol labelling in Australia is governed by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. The code requires certain statements to be visible on alcohol labels, which includes information about alcohol content, the number of standard drinks in the container and pregnancy warnings.
Under the code, alcoholic beverages are exempt from the mandatory food allergen labelling requirements for some (but not all) ingredients. According to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (which publishes the code), in alcohol production some allergens are processed in a way that renders them safe for consumers with allergies. This has to do with the fermentation process, which means that “an ingredient list of ingoing ingredients would not accurately represent the components of the food as purchased”.
For instance, distilled alcohol from wheat or whey is exempt from declaring wheat or milk. Beer and spirits do not have to declare barley, rye, oats or wheat.
There’s a bit more nuance when it comes to fish. Fish must be declared on alcohol labelling where it is used as an ingredient, but isinglass, a kind of protein derived from the swim bladders of fish which is sometimes used as a clarifying agent in beer and wine, does not have to be declared. This is because alcohol that has been through the isinglass clarifying process is not considered a risk to consumers who are allergic to fish.
Further, where egg or egg products or milk products are included in alcohol, the label must list those ingredients where they are “present in the final product” (ie not altered to be “safe” through the production process, as with distilled alcohol made from whey, described above).
This all means that for you and your son, if there are allergens such as fish and dairy present, the product must be labelled as such. While there is no obligation on servers to ask you if you have allergies when you’re dining out, they do have obligations under the code if you declare an allergy.
When eating and drinking out, be sure to let your server know about your allergy. They are then obliged to help you navigate the menu accordingly. They’re also obliged to let you know about the ingredients used in the food products they’re serving, which means they should be checking and/or showing you the labels of the alcohol they’re serving, so you can avoid any allergens.
Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia has good resources on how you can help protect yourself from allergens in alcohol when dining out. Along with telling your server about your allergies, you can also ask to avoid cross-contamination (for instance if you’re having a cocktail, asking for it to be prepared in a clean shaker). It also helps to have some prepackaged drinks in mind, which you know are safe. Given the nature of your and your son’s allergies, seeking out products that have third-party vegan certification could be a good place to start.
Finally, if you’re out and about, you’ve declared your allergy and the venue doesn’t follow their obligations (for instance, doesn’t show you the labels of the alcohol you’re interested in) you can make a complaint to your local food enforcement authority.
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