The Codex Committees develop international guidance and standards for food and wine. These are used as a reference for many countries when considering the development of new or alteration of existing standards.
Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA)
Wine is the only major traded food commodity that is not listed in the General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA). This is mainly the result of an impasse between EU and new world wine producing nations around the interface between OIV standards and any GFSA standards.
Despite this, the European Union and OIV have expressed renewed interest in resolving the issue. Australian Grape & Wine has provided its strong support to Australian government Codex representatives and have offered to support a working group to resolve the issue, as a priority issue for the sector. The issue was raised under any other business during the last CCFA meeting (CCFA52) in September. CCFA52 agreed that Chile, the EU, and the USA would prepare a discussion paper on wine additives which would be included on the agenda for CCFA53.
Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL)
The 46th Session of CCFL (CCFL46) was held virtually on 27 September to 1 October 2021. This meeting included a number of items of interest to the wine sector.
A discussion paper on labelling of alcoholic beverages was on the agenda, but not available for the meeting. The Russian Federation was the lead on this issue and noted variance in views of the membership as the key factor in delaying the development of this paper. CCFL46 agreed:
Of concern with the development of this paper is the offer of assistance provided, in drafting an alcohol labelling paper, by WHO and EUROCARE (a non-governmental and public health organisation).
Other areas of note addressed in the committee, include allergen labelling with reference to the precautionary statement and future work on sustainability claims led by New Zealand and supported by the EU.
