Permissible food additives for alcoholic wines clarified: tartaric acid and ascorbic acid may be used within regulatory limits.

Tartaric acid and ascorbic acid are treated as permissible additives for alcoholic wines under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011. The regulations do not require an additive to appear both in the general regulation and in Appendix A before use is allowed. Tartaric acid is specifically recognised as an acidulant/buffering agent, subject to the prescribed maximum level of 600 ppm, and ascorbic acid is expressly covered as an exception to the antioxidant restriction. A refusal of a no objection certificate based only on absence from Appendix A, Table 3, Row 14 is therefore not sustainable.

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Issues: Whether tartaric acid and ascorbic acid are permitted food additives for alcoholic wines under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011, and whether refusal of the no objection certificate solely because those ingredients do not appear in Appendix A, Table 3, Row 14 is sustainable.

Analysis: The definition of food additive in section 3(1)(k) of the Act, read with section 19, permits only those additives that are in conformity with the Act and the regulations. Regulation 3.1.1 permits food additives in alcoholic wines, and the words used there do not require that an additive must be listed both in the regulation and in Appendix A before it can be used. Regulation 3.1.12 specifically lists tartaric acid as an acidulant/buffering agent with a maximum use level of 600 ppm, and the note only excludes food meant for children below 12 months. On that reading, tartaric acid is a permitted additive for alcoholic wines so long as the prescribed limit is not exceeded. Ascorbic acid is also permitted, since Regulation 3.1.5 expressly recognises it as an exception in the restriction on antioxidants. The refusal of the certificate rested only on the view that the additives were absent from Appendix A, Table 3, Row 14, which was an incorrect construction of the regulations.

Conclusion: The additives were held to be permissible in alcoholic wines, and the refusal of the no objection certificate was unsustainable.

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