Agriculture & Food

How much do you know about imported alcohol labels

German beer, French brandy, Italian wine...With the improvement of people's living standards, more and more imported alcoholic beverages have entered the eyes of consumers and appeared on ordinary people's tables.

There are a dazzling array of imported wines on the market. How can we avoid buying fake wines or knockoffs when we select imported wines? How to buy a good wine according to the Chinese label on the bottle? Next, we will answer for you one by one.

According to the "Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China", imported pre-packaged foods should have Chinese labels. If regular imported alcoholic beverages are to be sold legally on the market, in addition to affixed to the front of the bottle with the official label of the country of import, it is also necessary to affix a formal Chinese back label on the back of the bottle.

●There are various slogans on the common imported alcohol packaging on the market. What do these slogans mean? What little secrets are hidden on the Chinese label? What kind of information can Chinese labels bring to our consumers during the purchase process? After reading this article, you never have to worry about not understanding the secrets of imported alcohol labels.

Tips on common liquor labels

1. "Excessive drinking is harmful to health" should be marked, and other warnings can be marked at the same time; beer packaged in glass bottles should be marked with warnings such as "Do not hit, prevent bottle explosion";

2. The alcohol content should be indicated in units of "%vol". For example, "11%vol" means that in 100 ml of wine, the content of alcohol (ethanol) is 11 ml;

3. Beer should indicate the original wort concentration, with "Original Wort Concentration" as the title, and the Platonic symbol "°P" as the unit. Fruit wine (except wine) should indicate the original juice content, which is indicated by "××%" in the ingredient list;

4. Wine and other fermented wines with alcohol content greater than or equal to 10% vol and their blended wines may be exempt from marking the shelf life.

#1

Items that must be marked for imported alcohol:

1. Product name

2. Raw materials and accessories

3. Country or region of origin

4. Production date, packaging date, filling date or packaging (filling) date

5. Storage method

6. Alcohol

7. Net content

8. Importer or agent information

9. Warning

The meaning of letters such as DOCG commonly found on wine packaging

1. DOCG: high-quality wine from the legally-produced area, guaranteed wine from the legally-produced area (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita)

2. DOC: Wines from legal regions (Denominazione di Origine Controllata)

3. DO: Protection of Appellation of Origin (legal production area) (Denominación de Origen)

4. VDQS: High-quality regional wine (Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure)

5. IGP: Geographical Indication Protection (Wine) (Indication Géographique Protégée)

6. AOP: Protection of Origin (Wine) (Appellation d’Origine Protégée)

7. AOC: Designation of Origin (Wine) (Appellation d‘Origine Contrôlée)

#2

Non-mandatory labeling content:

1. Production area

2. Grape varieties

3. Type

4. Shelf life

(Alcohol content ≤10%vol must be marked)

5. Original wort concentration

(Beer must be marked)

6. The original juice content

(Fruit wines other than wine must be marked)

7. Manufacturer Information

8. Other descriptive words

The role of Chinese back label

The world of alcohol is complex. Take wine as an example. There are countless varieties of wine in the world, and there are hundreds of main wine grape varieties. The laws and regulations of major wine producing countries and regions are different, and the style and price of wine vary greatly.

The Chinese back label is not only a requirement of related laws and regulations for imported food, but it is also of great significance for Chinese consumers to find suitable wines for themselves. For ordinary consumers, if there are only wine labels in foreign languages, many people may be at a loss.

There is also a question that netizens are generally concerned about, that is, if the imported wine is not affixed with the Chinese back label, does it mean that you have bought fake wine?

In fact, it is not always true. For example, wines at domestic wine exhibitions do not need to be affixed with Chinese backing labels because they are not in the category of trade goods. Wines we obtain from embassies, duty-free shops, and overseas purchasing agents may not have Chinese backing labels. But in addition, wines without a back label are more likely to be parallel imports or even fakes...

In addition, it is worth noting that sometimes wine has only one Chinese back label, and sometimes the Chinese back label is overlaid on the foreign language back label. In fact, these methods of labeling are in compliance with the regulations. The difference is that some Chinese wine labels are directly affixed when bottling in foreign wineries, while others are affixed after the wine enters the country, so there is a "two back labels" situation, there is no need to worry about it.