The European Commission published a document containing questions and answers on the implementation of new EU wine labelling provisions just two weeks before the December 8th deadline. The document consists of 40 answers to the most frequently asked questions on the topic EU wine labels. It finally provides some more of the certainty that many wineries were waiting for and further clarifies many important details on the legal interpretation of EU 2021/2117 and related regulation EU 1169/2011.

This article summarizes the most important insights and information regarding the EU wine label regulations Q&A document. This article also includes an example and description of a compliant physical and electronic label for reference.

• General questions
  • “How should the new compulsory information be presented on the label?”
  • “Which wines in which stage of marketing must show nutrition declaration and list of ingredients? E.g. wine in tank/keg/ barrels or only bottled wine?”
  • “When can a wine be considered as having been produced?”
• List of ingredients
  • What counts as an ingredient?
  • What format should the list of ingredients have?
  • Allergens
  • Rules for specific ingredients and procedures
• Nutritional declaration
  • What form should the nutritional declaration have?
  • “Is any other component, besides fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, and salt necessary in the nutrition declaration?”
  • Difference in batches and fixing values
• Electronic labeling
  • “What are the requirements for electronic labeling?”
  • Marketing and EAN information on QR codes
• Example label

Most of the compulsory information must be made available on the physical label in “the same field of view”. This includes:

• Ingredient list & Nutritional declaration
  • Can be provided via a QR code
• Category of wine
• Alcohol percentage
• Indication of provenance/origin
• The name of the bottler
• For sparkling wines: name of producer/vendor
• Energy value
• Allergens and intolerances (clearly distinguishable)

Mandatory information that can be made available outside the same field of view is:

• Importers
• Lot numbers
• Minimum date of durability (best before date)

The nutritional declaration and list of ingredients must be made available to the end consumers of the product regardless of the wine’s casing or container. The casing the wine is in at the time of purchase should contain the relevant nutritional declaration and list of ingredients.

The applicability of the new regulation is related to when the wine is produced. Wines and sparkling wines have different interpretations for when a wine is produced:

Wines: When the primary alcoholic fermentation is completed and required alcoholic strength and acidity reached 

Sparkling wines: after the 2nd fermentation process.

As stated in EU regulation 2021/2117, wines ‘produced’, with an eye to the above clarifications, after December 8, 2023 are compelled into compliance.

The list of ingredients must contain any products that are present in the final product. Therefore, processing aids and other ingredients that are used throughout the manufacturing process, but are not present in the finished products are exempt from being on the ingredient list.

According to the regulation, wine’s main ingredient, Grapes, can be added as the main ingredient, or specified further into:

1. Grapes
2. Crushed grapes
3. Grape must

Although these specification variations are not mandatory.

The list of ingredients must have a title stating “ingredients”. The ingredients must be displayed in descending order of weight, except ingredients that constitute less than 2% of the total product, those may be put in any order. Also, the ingredients must be named by their specific name, with exceptions being made in FIC Regulation and in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, such as “grapes” referring to the raw material used, rather than the ingredient name.

All ingredients must be added to the ingredient list in the following format:

• The name of their functional (ingredient) category
  • The name of the ingredient
    • As mentioned before: if the ingredient present can cause allergies or intolerances, it must be emphasized.

An example of this format can be found below.

All substances present in a product that can cause allergies and intolerances must always be indicated on the physical label paired with a statement of the word “contains.”  For both the physical and electronic labels, the substance causing allergens must also be emphasized through a clearly distinguishable typeset. This means a different font, Bolding, or even text & background color.

example: “contains Sulphites”

Additives and substances for enrichment are considered as ingredients as they are both present in the final product. They must therefore be added to the list of ingredients, in the same way as any other ingredients. Processing aids are not considered ingredients, as they are not present in the final product, but must still be added to the ingredient list if the processing aids can cause allergies. For example, yeasts are typically not considered ingredients. More on that later in this article.

To get a comprehensive list of additives/processing aids and their functional category, please refer to Table 2 of Part A of Annex I of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/934

When mentioning sugar for enrichment, the statement varies based on the substance used. The following details should be considered.

Concentrated grape must & rectified concentrated grape must:
Can be grouped together and appear in the ingredients as “Concentrated grape must”

Sucrose:
Must be listed separately. Can be listed and designated by the name “sugar”

Yeast does not need to be added in the ingredient list as it is considered to be a processing aid. The only yeast compound that does need to be added to the ingredient list if used is ​​yeast mannoprotein.

If packaging involves the use of a protective gas, such as for the purpose of extending durability, the type of gas used is not necessary to state, barring other exceptions, however labels must include the phrase “packaged in a protective atmosphere”.”

Wineries need to ensure that their nutritional declaration values and ingredients are well visible on the label. Specifically: any characters containing the nutritional values must appear at least 1,2mm or bigger, regardless of styling.

The nutritional declaration must be made available in a tabular format, if space permits, either on the physical label or the electronic label. Wineries can also opt to show the nutritional declaration in a linear format, if space does not permit the tabular format. Either way, The numerical nutritional values must be aligned & given per portion & per 100ml. The list must include the type of nutrition in the following format:

• Energy
• Fat
  • Of which saturates
• Carbohydrates
  • Of which sugars
• Protein
• Salt

When the amount of nutrient information is negligible, or shown as “0”, the information can be shown in a statement of: “contains negligible amount of “X”. Example:

When the nutritional values are made available via an electronic label, the physical label must include a statement of energy values. This energy value can be expressed in a statement of the letter “E” followed by the value.

Example: E: 195Kj/47kcal per 100ml

Next to the above mentioned components, the mandatory nutrients to list are “mono-unsaturates; polyunsaturates; polyols; starch; fibre; any of the vitamins or minerals listed in point 1 of Part A of Annex XIII, and present in significant amounts as defined in point 2 of Part A of Annex XIII of the same Regulation.”

Due to the nature of wine products, wines can have different energy values depending on their batch. Therefore, wineries are asked to provide the “average value” of their wine products, which is a value that “best represents the amount of the nutrient, which a given food contains, and reflects allowances for natural variability of foodstuffs, seasonal variability, patterns of consumption and other factors, which may cause the actual value to vary.”

To reach this representative value, wineries are asked to take into account

1. The manufacturers analysis
2. Average values as provided for by the European commission in Annex XIV of the FIC Regulation
3. Generally established and accepted data

From analyzing these three data points, wineries can make an educated decision to declare their nutritional values, although it is possible that the declaration can actually be different from the nutritional information provided. To manage the accepted nutritional differences, the European commission has set up a document containing the overview of the different tolerance values. 

Note: In contrast, alcohol content MUST always be precise.

The European commission allows for some data to be added by electronic means, by adding a data carrier to the physical label. This data carrier links to a webpage that contains the information required to be communicated by law. The most commonly used data carriers are QR codes, which have also been specifically named in the Q&A document (question 27), as a valid, usable data carrier by the European commission.

Although the European Commission has not set exact requirements for what software and hardware to use for your electronic labels, there are a couple of hard requirements that it has to meet:

On the label, the data carrier:

• Must appear as:
  • Easily visible
  • Clearly legible
  • Indelible
    • If you add the QR code as a sticker, make sure it cannot be removed from the label
  • Must be accompanied by a statement of “ingredients” above the QR code.
    • The “I” logo inside of the QR code is not sufficient as of the latest regulation.

To add to the above, the data carrier:

• • Must be accessible by universal access tools.
    • E.g. smartphone
  • Must not have data for marketing purposes
    • Must be stored outside of company website
  • Must not collect user data
    • No exceptions to the prohibited collection of personally identifiable information.

Information can be added in addition to the QR codes with mandatory information. More than one QR code can be added to the label or packaging containing non-mandatory information. There are a couple of use cases for this

Marketing information can be added onto the labeling, although it has to be added to the label in the form of another QR code, leading to a different landing page. For a marketing purpose QR code to be applied, it must not confuse the consumer as to where the obligatory information is stored, namely the mandatory QR code, and it must not detract space from the mandatory QR code. It must also be made clear that this code is the code for marketing purposes, while the other is for mandatory information.

It is allowed for EAN information to be added to the same code, as long as it keeps the mandatory information integrity. The most important point is that the nutritional and ingredient information is available to the consumer at the point of scanning. If you manage to incorporate EAN (European Article Number) data without making it harder for consumers to see their data, then it is allowed.

The above example demonstrates how any label design would integrate the Scantrust U-label software generated electronic EU wine label. Scantrust U-label offers the ability to make your e-labels by filling in the relevant information in an easy to fill and partially pre-populated form. This makes compliance easy and fast. Scantrust U-label offers automatic translations for all 24 official EU languages, QR codes with dynamic content, for example for scan results in regions outside the EU, scan analytics (within what is allowed in the prohibition for PII collection), mass upload, and region specific information. The landing pages and QR codes are customizable with enterprise grade up-times. You can sign up for and create up to 3 electronic labels for free at the link below!