APACE

A CAS Registry Number or informally CAS Number is a unique numerical identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) to every chemical substance described in the open scientific literature. Currently, it includes all substances described from 1957 through the present, plus some substances from as far back as the early 1800s. It includes organic and inorganic compounds, minerals, isotopes, alloys, mixtures, and nonstructural materials (UVCBs, substances of unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products, or biological origin). CAS Numbers are generally serial numbers.

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally adopted food standards and related texts presented in a uniform manner. These food standards and related texts aim at protecting consumers’ health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade. The publication of the Codex Alimentarius is intended to guide and promote the elaboration and establishment of definitions and requirements for foods to assist in their harmonisation and in doing so to facilitate international trade.

An E number is used in the European Union to identify permitted food additives. An E number means that an additive has passed safety tests and has been approved for use.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) that provides independent scientific advice and communicates on existing and emerging risks associated with the food chain. Most of EFSA’s works is undertaken in response to requests for scientific advice from the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU Member States.

FIVS, the International Wine Federation, is the global voice of wine. We develop strong relationships, cultivate close collaboration, and support the growth of a wine industry that is open to all who wish to explore it.

As a worldwide membership organisation, we represent and advocate for the wine sector — building bridges between the vibrant face of modern wine and proud heritage; between thousands of wine businesses and global policy-making; and between responsibility and technical progress.

FIVS classifies winemaking substances into four categories, based on whether the residual substance carries a technological function in the finished wine:

• Category 1: Naturally occurring in grapes and insignificant treatment residual in wine
• Category 2: Naturally occurring in grapes and treatment residual in wine
• Category 3: Not naturally occurring in grapes and insignificant treatment residual in wine
• Category 4: Not naturally occurring in grapes and treatment residual in wine

Food additive means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result, (directly or indirectly) in it or its by-products becoming a component of or otherwise affecting the characteristics of such foods. The term does not include “contaminants” or substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities.

Generally recognised as safe (GRAS) is a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts. An ingredient with a GRAS designation is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act food additive tolerance requirements.

Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for food additives are described in Section 3.3 of the Preamble of the Codex General Standard for Food Additives as follows:

“All food additives subject to the provisions of this Standard shall be used under conditions of good manufacturing practice, which include the following:

• the quantity of the additive added to food shall be limited to the lowest possible level necessary to accomplish its desired effect;
• the quantity of the additive that becomes a component of food as a result of its use in the manufacturing, processing or packaging of a food and which is not intended to accomplish any physical, or other technical effect in the food itself, is reduced to the extent reasonably possible; and,
• the additive is prepared and handled in the same way as a food ingredient.”

The International Numbering System for Food Additives (INS) is intended as a harmonised naming system for food additives as an alternative to the use of the specific name, which may be lengthy.  It is defined by Codex Alimentarius, the international food standards organisation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). The information is published in the document Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives, first published in 1989, with revisions in 2008 and 2011. The INS is an open list, “subject to the inclusion of additional additives or removal of existing ones on an ongoing basis.”

Oenoppia is an internationally minded association grouping together the producers of oenological products. General oenologists or specialists in a particular field, the member companies of Oenoppia have a common profession: that of developing, producing and marketing oenological products. The Œnoppia members represent approximately 85% of oenological products used by winemakers throughout the world.

The OIV is an intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature of recognised competence for its works concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, table grapes, raisins and other vine-based products.

Processing aid means any substance or material, not including apparatus or utensils, and not consumed as a food ingredient by itself, intentionally used in the processing of raw materials, foods or its ingredients, to fulfil a certain technological purpose during treatment or processing and which may result in the non-intentional but unavoidable presence of residues or derivatives in the final product.

A safety data sheet (SDS), material safety data sheet (MSDS), or product safety data sheet (PSDS) is a document that lists information relating to occupational safety and health for the use of various substances and products. SDSs are a widely used system for cataloguing information on chemicals, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures. SDS information may include instructions for the safe use and potential hazards associated with a particular material or product, along with spill-handling procedures. The older MSDS formats could vary from source to source within a country depending on national requirements; however, the newer SDS format is internationally standardized.

An SDS for a substance is not primarily intended for use by the general consumer, focusing instead on the hazards of working with the material in an occupational setting. There is also a duty to properly label substances on the basis of physico-chemical, health, or environmental risk. Labels can include hazard symbols such as the European Union standard symbols. The same product (e.g. paints sold under identical brand names by the same company) can have different formulations in different countries. The formulation and hazard of a product using a generic name may vary between manufacturers in the same country.

The use of oenological products in wine production has occurred for thousands of years. For example, there is evidence that some of the food-preserving benefits of sulphur dioxide were beginning to be understood perhaps as far back as the 8th century BC. Although we are still discovering new and improved ways to elaborate the best possible wine from the grapes that are harvested each year, it is not true that making additions of various kinds to wine during production is something new.

Grapes do not arrive at the winery in a totally uniform and predictable condition every year. There can, in fact, be significant variation even across a single vineyard of the same grape variety. The variability only increases from vineyard to vineyard in a region, from region to region etc.  Winemakers will always try to produce wines of the highest possible quality for the consumer from every lot of grapes that enter the winey. For some wines, it is also important to maintain a consistency of presentation from year to year (as far as possible given the grapes that are harvested). To achieve these goals, winemakers will make certain adjustments during the winemaking process (for example, so that essential constituents like sugar and acid may be brought into an appropriate balance) to ensure that the wine will be in the best possible condition as it is distributed through the supply chain to the retailer and the final consumer.

All countries and regions in which wine is made allow the use of several enological products to achieve the aims described above. The selection of substances allowed in a given country or region is controlled by regulation and is no secret – they can be discovered through a simple online search.

Not all of the substances permitted for use in winemaking in a given jurisdiction are used in every wine that is produced. On the contrary, for very good reasons, the winemaker will actually try to use as few of them and as little of them as possible.

Cost. Every addition or other treatment that is made as a wine is elaborated inevitably adds to the cost of producing the finished product and therefore erodes the financial benefit the producer may obtain (since wines are often sold at fixed price points). In addition, increasing the cost of production will make the finished wine less competitive in the market place with wines from other producers who have been careful to control interventions during production that increase costs.

Quality. Winemakers are well aware that every treatment performed on a wine as it is elaborated, and every addition that is made, poses a risk to the quality of the final wine. For this reason, they will try to “touch” the wine as little as possible until it is in the bottle. In addition, adding more of an enological product than the minimum needed may result in an unpalatable wine. For instance, adding more acid than needed to bring the sugars and acids in a wine into balance could result in a wine that is too acidic for consumer tastes. Sometimes the treasured sensory characteristics of a particular grape variety are present in the wine as very delicate aromas and flavors, and injudicious use of treatments and/or processes can result in a wine with significantly lessened varietal characters and therefore with less inherent market value.

In FIVS-APACE, treatment substances that are approved for use in winemaking in different parts of the world are all gathered into one information source.  They are categorized on the basis of whether they occur naturally in grapes or not, and also on whether any treatment residual remains in a wine where they have been used. It will be seen that around one half of the permitted substances or their basic constituents can be found naturally in grapes. In addition, only around one quarter are not naturally found in grapes (though many of these are still of natural origin) and may leave residues in the wines that are treated with them.

If a wine is lacking in acid and the winemaker decides that it needs an adjustment to balance the sugar content, it is most often grape-derived tartaric acid that will be used to supplement the tartaric acid already present and achieve the desired result. This is true in many instances of the use of enological products – grape-derived materials are used to supplement the identical substances already present in the grapes that arrive at the winery, so that the resulting wine will have the stability needed and will meet the demands that consumers have for the wine that will be offered for sale.

“Good Manufacturing Practice” is a well-understood term in food production. It is defined internationally by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in relation to food additives. For those substances for which there are no public health considerations , it means that, “the quantity of the additive added to food does not exceed the amount reasonably required to accomplish its intended physical nutritional or other technical effect in food”

GMP Provides the Strictest Criterion for Usage

Although some hold the opinion that limiting the use of food additives to “GMP” is a very loose standard, following the definition of Codex Alimentarius actually results in a stricter control on their use. For example, if a maximum use level of 4.0 g/L is established for a substance to accommodate variance in wine characteristics, but only 3.0 g/L is necessary to achieve the intended technical function in the wine under normal conditions, then GMP requires that less than the established numerical maximum use level for the additive be used. The possibility in the case of a numerical limit is that a substance is always added up to the maximum amount specified, regardless of how little may actually be needed.

1. A Numerical Limit Shouldn’t Imply a Normal Usage Level

It is important to realize, though, that where there is a numerical limit, that should not be interpreted as an instruction to add the maximum amount. In practice, winemakers should always be striving to use as little as possible to achieve their goals, because this is good manufacturing practice and it pays due attention to the issues of cost and product quality that are mentioned above.

Limits Linked to Risk Evaluation – Good Regulatory Practice Principle

Another point to note is that it is only those substances for which an expert risk evaluation shows there is no safety reason to establish a numerical daily intake limit that should be added to wine according to GMP. It is both appropriate and necessary to set numerical usage limits where expert risk evaluation demands this approach.

• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Wine Regulatory Forum (WRF)

  • Website

• Codex Alimentarius

  • Website
  • Additive Function Classes
  • INS numbers of food additives
  • Inventory of Processing Aids (to be superseded by a database maintained by the host government, China)

• Organisation of the Vine and Wine (OIV)

  • Website
  • International Code of Oenological Practices  (available in English and French)
  • International Oenological Codex  (available in English and French)

• World Wine Trade Group

  • Website
  • Wine Regulatory Principles
  • The 2001 Agreement on Mutual Acceptance of Oenological Practices (MAA)