EditorialSigned DoctorWine

Additives and adjuvants

Illustrazione di produzione vinicola addivitivi e coadiuvanti nel vino

The distinction between the two categories-additives and adjuvants-is not clear to a non-technician. For a technician, on the contrary, it is not possible to confuse one with the other. Let us, then, try to provide some clarity.

I quote from the HTS Enology website, www.hts-enologia.com (for contact info@hts-enologia.com). Si tratta di una lettura a tratti complessa, ma necessaria quando si affrontano problemi tecnici e la legge sull’etichettatura dei vini. Legge che, lo ricordiamo, è stata riformata nel 2023.

Additives

“A additive is a substance that is not usually consumed alone as a food but is is added to food to achieve a technological action or effect, of stabilization, preservation, protection, correction, etc., and which remains in the composition of foods, either as such or in a processed form. For example, organic acids used in acidity correction, sulfur dioxide, stabilizing products such as gum arabic or meta tartaric acid, etc., are additives.

Adjuvants

A processing aid on the other hand, is a substance that is added to and comes into contact with the food at a stage in its production cycle, in which it exhausts its technological function and is then removed. The use of an adjuvant may lead to the unintentional but technically unavoidable release of residues, provided these do not pose health risks. Adjuvants are, for example, the clarifying agents that are removed after performing their function by racking or filtration, or the yeasts for winemaking and all yeast by-products such as yeast hulls, inactivated yeasts, and yeast autolysates with the exception of purified mannoproteins, classified as additives.

The difference between the two

The difference therefore lies in the practices and conditions of use of one and the other.

Reg 2019/934 and the subsequent Reg 2022/68 list in the tables in Annex 1 the authorized oenological practices and oenological compounds, divided into additives and processing aids or substances used as a processing aid. Of these, only additives are to be reported in the list of ingredients while neither adjuvants nor physical practices are to be reported. Additives should be reported indicating the category (Acidity Regulators, Preservatives and Antioxidants, Stabilizing Agents or Packing Gases) and in parentheses the name or European abbreviation indicated by the letter “E” and a three-digit number identifying each food additive.”

Bottom line.

This is the distinction between the two categories of products that can be used by law. It seems clear that it is appropriate to include in the labeling only those substances that later remain in the wine, while it serves no purpose to put what is later removed such as, for example, clarifiers.

Why am I reporting all this? Just for clarity.

What you think about this post?