This article**: Consumer Reports Author: Liao Yuting
The New Year is approaching, and it is indispensable for friends to get together, and high-value fruit wine can add a lot of color to the party. Different from the intensity of white wine and the elegance of red wine, the sweetness and gentleness of fruit wine grasp the taste needs of young people today.
In January 2024, Consumer Reports sorted out the sampling of fruit wine quality published by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the provincial market supervision and administration bureau in the past three years from 2021 to 2024.
The results show that in the past three years, the regulatory authorities have found a total of 79 batches of unqualified fruit wine, and the reasons for the unqualified wine involve 9 items such as alcohol, methanol, cyclamate, sorbic acid and its potassium salt, and cyanide.
79 batches of fruit wine were unqualified.
Fruit wine is actually the "ancestor" of human winemaking history. As early as 6,000 years ago, the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians had learned to make wine made from fruits.
Broadly speaking, fruit wine refers to the wine made by fermentation, soaking and other processes with fruit as the main raw material, as well as fruit-flavored blended wine. Because the sugar of the fruit itself is fermented by yeast into alcohol, it contains fruit flavor and alcohol, which is also called fruit wine.
At present, there is a lack of unified classification standards for fruit wine, and the common types of fruit wine in the market are roughly divided into prepared fruit wine, soaked fruit wine, distilled fruit wine, and fermented fruit wine according to its production process. Among them, fermented fruit wine is the most technically difficult, costly, and varied type of fruit wine because it is made entirely from fruits.
The sampling results show that from January 2021 to January 2024, the regulatory authorities detected a total of 79 batches of unqualified fruit wine, of which nearly 6 percent of the unqualified ones were concentrated in the period from January 2021 to January 2022, and a total of 45 batches were detected, involving kiwi wine, mulberry wine, bayberry wine, jujube wine, blueberry wine, green plum wine and other categories.
Alcohol is the main reason for failure.
Among the 79 batches of unqualified fruit wines, the reasons reported mainly related to excessive alcohol content, harmful pollutants (methanol, cyanide), excessive range or excessive use of preservatives and sweeteners.
Among them, alcohol content is the most important reason for the failure of fruit wine, as high as 57 times, accounting for 704%, followed by methanol, accounting for 136%, and then cyclamate, accounting for 62%, and the three account for more than 9 percent.
The allowable error of alcohol is 1%vol of the labeled value
The alcohol content of fermented fruit wine is generally calculated by the sugar content of the raw materials or the total sugar content of the raw materials before fermentation, so there is generally no process and treatment to adjust the alcohol content like liquor, and theoretically experienced wineries rarely have the problem of high or low alcohol content.
According to the "Notice of Henan Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau on the Unqualified Situation of 37 Batches of Food (Issue 48 of 2021)", the Tianrun Peach Blossom Drunk Pear Blossom Brew produced by Qiu Tianrun Beverage, the nominal Suixian Yishengtang Liquor Co., Ltd., has an alcoholic content of 8%vol, and the measured alcohol content is only 30%vol, the error of the alcohol content marked according to the standard product is 1%vol, and the actual alcohol content of the product is the same as the standard range (70~9.0%vol) is far from the same.
1 batch of cider methanol was 231% higher than the standard value
Winemaking is a complex and lengthy fermentation process, during which there is a risk of excessive methanol. Because the cell wall of the fruit is rich in pectin, methanol is produced when the pectin is esterified. Methanol accumulates in the body and can lead to blindness.
According to the "Yunnan Provincial Administration for Market Supervision and Administration Food Safety Supervision and Sampling Information Notice No. 46 of 2021", a batch of cider produced by the nominal "Dai Jun" (the sampled unit does not have a small workshop registration certificate and business license) was detected with methanol 662 g l, which is higher than the standard value (2.).0g/l）231%。
In the industrial production of fruit wine, the methanol content is generally reduced by pretreatment, improved strains and the addition of exogenous pectinase. However, due to the influence of technical conditions and knowledge level, the methanol content is often uncontrollable.
The cyclamate detected in 5 batches was all from small workshops.
The chemical name of cyclamate is sodium cyclohexyl sulfamate, which is a commonly used sweetener in the food industry and is widely used because of its high sweetness (about 30 to 40 times that of sucrose).
According to the National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014), cyclamate is only allowed to be used in prepared wines (the maximum allowable amount is 0.).65g kg) and must not be used in fermented fruit wines.
According to the statistics of this magazine, there are 5 batches of fruit wine using cyclamate in violation of regulations, of which 3 batches are illegally added, and 2 batches are overused, it is worth mentioning that all of them are from small workshops.
According to the "Yunnan Provincial Administration for Market Supervision and Administration Food Safety Supervision and Sampling Information Notice - Issue 22 of 2022", the nominal sampling units were 2 batches of bulk bayberry wine from Dulong Xiaoya Department Store and Funing Haoteng Small Fried Store in Maguan County, and cyclamate 1 was detected respectively38g/kg、1.17g kg, according to the regulations, it is not allowed to be used.
Tiefeng Mountain, Tianrun Peach Blossom Drunk, and Courageous Advance have been on the list many times.
Sampling data shows that the fruit wine produced by the same wine company in the past 3 years has been unqualified for up to 3 times, including Chongqing Tiefengshan Liquor Industry *** Shangqiu Tianrun Beverage *** Ningshan County Qinling Changchun Liquor Factory, involving trademarks such as Si Silk Dew, Tiefeng Mountain, Tianrun Peach Blossom Drunk, and Courage.
Reminder of the consumption of fruit wine.
1. Pay attention to the label and distinguish the type of fruit wine by the ingredient list and juice content. Generally, the fruit (juice) is the first in the ingredient list of fermented fruit wines, and there is no other wine base and the juice content will be marked; Water or other wine base is the first place in the ingredient list of prepared fruit wines, and the juice content is rarely indicated.
2. Pay attention to the sugar content. The sugar content of fruit wine is not low, and some are even very high, so it is recommended that consumers drink it appropriately according to their own conditions.
3. There are risks in home-brewed fruit wine. The conditions of self-brewed fruit wine are not sufficient or the fermentation process is unreasonable, etc., which may lead to excessive methanol.
4. Pay attention to the alcohol content, correctly understand the propaganda terms such as "low" and "slightly drunk", and do not drink and drive.
Special statement]: The original data used in this content are from the official market supervision departments at all levels of the country, and the data are objective and true. If the relevant sampling results are verified and confirmed by the relevant departments to confirm the fact of change, please contact this journal in time.