2. Product Categories
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2. Product Categories
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Beers, RTDs, Whisky
Philippines
This section provides the regulatory definition of the food category in scope, or the appropriate food category for the product in scope. Additionally, it provides the food products that belong to this food category along with the definition and specific information on each of these types of food products.
2.1 Category Name & Definition
General Food
General Food
Food refers to any substance or product whether processed, partially processed, or unprocessed that is intended for human consumption. It includes drinks, chewing gum, water, and other substances that are intentionally incorporated into the food during its manufacture, preparation, and treatment [1].
Category Name
Alcoholic Beverages
There is no local legal definition for alcoholic beverages. Since the Philippines adopted the Codex Standard for Food Additives and corresponding Codex Food Categories, alcohol-free and low-alcoholic counterparts are included in the same category as alcoholic beverages [2].
2.2 Product & Definition
1) Beer
Definition
An alcoholic drink brewed from germinated barley (malt), hops, yeast, and water. Examples include: ale, brown beer, weiss beer, pilsner, lager beer, oud bruin beer, Obergariges Einfachbier, light beer, table beer, malt liquor, porter, stout, and barleywine, as per Codex category 14.2.1 [3] . Beer may also be categorized as aromatized alcoholic beverages containing less than 15% alcohol, as per Codex category 14.2.7 [3].
Specifications/Target Age
No intended target age in the food law. However, legally, alcoholic beverages are prohibited from being promoted and sold to minors below 18 years old. [4]
Additional Information
Barley is the most important of the raw materials used for beer production. Barley of high brewing value provides ample quantities of extract from the resultant malt, and has a high starch but moderate protein (9–10%) content, a high degree of germination (at least 95% of kernels), high germination vigor and good swelling ability [5].
2) Alcoholic Ready-to-drink beverages (mainly Chuhai)
There is no specific product category for Chuhai. Alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages such as Chuhai are sub-classified as “Aromatized Alcoholic Beverages” (e.g. beer, wine and spirituous cooler-type beverages, low-alcoholic refreshers) under the product category ‘Alcoholic Beverages’ Aromatized alcoholic beverages includes all non-standardized alcoholic beverage products. Although most of these products contain less than 15% alcohol, some traditional non-standardized aromatized products may contain up to 24% alcohol [3].
Specifications/Target Age
No intended target age in the food law. However, legally, alcoholic beverages are prohibited from being promoted and sold to minors below 18 years old. [4]
Additional Information
None.
3) Whisky
Definition
There is no local legal definition of whisky. According to the European Union definition which the local industry recognizes:
- Whisky or whiskey is a spirit drink produced exclusively by carrying out all of the following production operations:
- distillation of a mash made from malted cereals, with or without whole grains of unmalted cereals, which has been: — saccharified by the diastase of the malt contained therein, with or without other natural enzymes, — fermented by the action of yeast;
- each and every distillation is carried out at less than 94,8 % vol. so that the distillate has an aroma and taste derived from the raw materials used;
- maturation of the final distillate for at least three years in wooden casks not exceeding 700 liters capacity. The final distillate, to which only water and plain caramel (for coloring) may be added, shall retain the color, aroma, and taste it derived from the production process referred to in points (i), (ii), and (iii).
- The minimum alcoholic strength by volume of whisky or whiskey shall be 40 %.
- No addition of alcohol, diluted or not, shall take place.
- Whisky or whiskey shall not be sweetened, even for rounding off the taste or flavor, or contain any additives other than plain caramel (E 150a) used for adjusting the color.
- The legal name of ‘whisky’ or ‘whiskey’ may be supplemented by the term ‘single malt’ only if it has been distilled exclusively from malted barley at a single distillery.[6]
Whisky is classified as a distilled spirituous beverage containing more than 15% alcohol, including all distilled spirituous beverages derived from grain (e.g. corn, barley, rye, wheat), tubers (e.g. potato), fruit (e.g. grapes, berries) or sugar cane that contain greater than 15% alcohol.
Specifications/Target Age
No intended target age in the food law. However, legally, alcoholic beverages are prohibited from being promoted and sold to minors below 18 years old. [4]
Additional Information
None.
2.3 References
1. Rules and Regulations on the Licensing of Food Establishments and. Registration of Processed Food, and Other Food Products, and For. Other Purposes
https://www.fda.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Administrative-Order-No.-2014-0029.pdf
2. Codex Food Category 14.2
https://www.fao.org/gsfaonline/foods/details.html?id=253
3. General Standard For Food Additives CODEX STAN 192-1995
4. FDA Advisory No. 2019-250
5. Food Chemistry 4th revised and extended Edition H.-D. Belitz & W. Grosch, P. Schieberle, Page 892
6. Official Journal of the European Union L 130/31 - L 130/32 REGULATION (EU) 2019/787 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 April 2019 on the definition, description, presentation and labelling of spirit drinks, the use of the names of spirit drinks in the presentation and labelling of other foodstuffs, the protection of geographical indications for spirit drinks, the use of ethyl alcohol and distillates of agricultural origin in alcoholic beverages, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 110/2008
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/eur186220.pdf
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