Consumer Protection Association: They Put Additives In Beer!

C.I.

Beer containing additives is being marketed in Romania, despite its content of malic acid, ammonia caramel and various flavourings. "These ingredients mislead consumers as consumers believe that beer is a 100% natural product. These beverages should be called beer-type low-alcohol beverages. Some of the beer producers in Romania are violating the law on product labelling by stating the use of caramel and not of the actual ingredient, which is ammonia caramel. This is causing great confusion," said Costel Stanciu, President of the Romanian Consumer Protection Association.

Germany managed to withstand the lobby of the major European brewers by including a mandatory interdiction to use food additives in traditional German beer. The interdiction was included in Annex 4 to EC Regulation no. 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 December 2008 on food additives.

A good product usually comes in good packaging. Traditionally, the best seal is the metal cap with cork coating on the inside and a piece of aluminium foil separating the cork from the beer. The cork coating has come to be replaced by plastic in most cases. Caps that are entirely made of plastic are inferior to metal caps.

Glass bottles offer superior protection to PET bottles (polyethylene terephthalate). Despite improved properties of the plastic used in PET bottles for beer, glass remains the premium bottling solution, especially if it is dark-coloured. The degree of protection of the content decreases from brown to green and then to colourless bottles.

Beer is a low-alcohol beverage of natural origin made of the following natural ingredients: malt, hop, water and yeast. The quality of the ingredients directly influences the quality of the beer. Malt gives colour, hop gives the slightly bitter taste, foam and preservability, while water needs to be soft and pure.