Carboxymethylcellulose update

Back in June I looked at the latest application to add an additive to the list allowed for winemaking in Australia. Sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC for short) has subsequently been approved for use as an additive, the change to Standard 4.5.1 taking effect with gazettal on November 17th. The story appeared today in the Australian under the surprising headline 'Nod for laxative chemical to be used in winemaking'. CMC does indeed have laxative properties (Schultz, 1949). It would be interesting to compare the laxative dose with the concentration to be used in wine. I've now updated the additives table with the inclusion of CMC.

Wine additives in the news

Chris Shanahan, wine columnist for the Canberra Times, wrote an article 'Wine additives play a part' which appeared yesterday. It can be read online here. While the subtitle was 'Why you don't have to be alarmed about the additives in your wine', some of the comments so far are from people who are unnecessarily alarmed. I understand that additives in food can be emotive, but that is exactly why this blog exists – so that you can know what the additives are for and whether they are worth being alarmed about or not.

Wine ingredient labelling

Currently, wine and other alcoholic beverages are exempt from the requirement to label ingredients. However, wine additives and processing aids include some for which declaration is mandatory when they are added to any food. Those relevant to wine are:

• 'Egg and egg products'.
  Would be labelled where the processing aid egg white has been used in fining, or lysozyme (purified from egg white) has been used to control bacteria.
• 'Fish and fish products'.
  For a period it was necessary to label these on beer and wine, when the processing aid isinglass had been used, until an exemption was granted in 2009. This decision was made because isinglass contains very small amounts of the fish allergen parvalbumin, and of this, any amount remaining in the final product is undetectable and would not be expected to cause an allergic reaction in fish-allergic consumers.
• 'Milk and milk products'.
  Would be labelled where the processing aid milk has been used in fining.
• 'Added Sulphites in concentrations of 10 mg/kg or more'.
  See the additive sulphur dioxide.
• 'Tree nuts and sesame seeds and their products other than coconut from the fruit of the palm Cocos nucifera'.
  Would be labelled where the additive tannin has been added and includes material from nuts such as chestnut.

So, wine additives are not labelled, except for these allergens. Should all ingredients be labelled in wine, as they are for other foods? Max Allen asked this question of his readers recently, and will be writing more on the topic soon.

Brtish wine authority Jancis Robinson came out in favour of labelling in a recent article in Gourmet Traveller WINE, and a longer version may be read here. (Note that the article includes the image of a Chilean back label that includes carboxmethyl cellulose among its ingredients.) The article is out of date, incidentally, in suggesting that Australian wine regulations still require the labelling of ascorbic acid or fish products (see above).

Robinson argues for labelling "not for health reasons but because I think curious wine drinkers are justified in wanting to know how their wines were made". After discussing a number of specific ingredients, she concludes that "...as a purist, idealist wine lover, I would dearly love to know which wines had been most manipulated and reward the rest with my, perhaps naïve but extremely heartfelt, admiration. Who knows? If ingredient labelling were to become mandatory for wine as well as food, it might just encourage winemakers to use fewer shortcuts and additives."

What do you think?

Carboxymethyl cellulose application summary

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is not currently permitted in wine, but the Winemakers Federation of Australia have applied to have it included in the code as a permitted additive. The application is found on the FSANZ website at: Application A1047– Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose as a Food Additive in Wine. Anyone may make a submission until 11th July.

It appears that there are two reasons the WFA argues CMC should be allowed: that it would provide another tool for control of tartrate crystal formation, and that it is required for the wine agreement with the EU, since EU wines containing it are not legal for sale in Australia.

The assessment of FSANZ is that the application should be allowed. Should no review be required, FSANZ expects gazettal of the changes mid December 2011. I understand that gazettal marks the time additions may legally be made.

Here is a basic summary of the role CMC would play in Australian winemaking:

	Source(s)	Purpose	Health considerations	Usage
sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (food additive code number 466)	Derived from plant cellulose	Prevents formation or growth of crystals of potassium hydrogen tartrate in wine, hence would provide an alternative means of cold-stabilising wine.	Non-toxic and non-allergenic. Permitted as an additive in other foods in Australia (i.e. CMC is listed in schedule 2 of standard 1.3.1). Used as a thickener and emulsifier, it seems we might be most likely to encounter it in ice cream or toothpaste.	The current method of cold stabilisation involves refrigeration which accounts for a large part of winery electrcity use. This simple alternative would be cheaper and reduce energy consumption.

So what is wine made of?

For those of us immersed in winemaking, a surprising question relates to the tasting notes we often use on back labels, along the lines of 'So, if the wine has aromas of blackcurrant and chocolate, how do you get those in there?' So the first point to make, is that wine is made from grapes. Just grapes, and if there is anything else used, it can only be from a list of approved additives and processing aids, which is authorised by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (search for "standard 4.5.1"). Blackcurrant and chocolate are not on the list, those flavours come from the grapes, or perhaps from the oak barrels the wine is matured in. Most wines involve a few additions, typically yeast (although the indigenous or wild yeast may be used in place of an added yeast) sulphur dioxide and tartaric acid. It is worth keeping in mind (and, I think, paraphrasing Pasteur) that nature, left to itself, will turn grapes into vinegar, so if you want to make wine you need to intervene somewhat. Next, lets look at the list of allowed additives and then the list of processing aids.

Introduction

This blog is about winemaking in Australia, and specifically what additives and processing aids may be used in wine production. It is begun in response to Max Allen's column in the Weekend Australian Magazine last weekend, which you can read here. Max's column mentioned several additives and processing aids that are registered for use in wine, plus one (carboxymethylcellulose) that is currently being considered, and it made me realise that the general wine consumer would have no idea what they were or what they were being used for, and perhaps it was time to make that information readily available. Mind you, I think Max chose the most challenging ones from the list: dimethyl dicarbonate, metatartaric acid and polyvinyl polypyrrolidone might sound scary, but are they? This site will list the allowed additives and processing aids with a simple introduction to what they are, where they come from and why they might be used in wine. This has been quickly written and is bound to contain errors, which I would be glad to have pointed out.