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DEALCOHOLISED DRINKS CANNOT BE LABELLED AS NON-ALCOHOLIC IN MALAYSIA

By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET

15-8-2022



Credit: Stephen Kong/Unsplash

The Malaysian government has recently updated the country’s food regulations, the most notable change is that all beverages that are dealcoholised after normal fermentation are not permitted to be labelled as non-alcoholic or zero alcohol to avoid confusing the country’s Muslim consumers.

The country’s Minstry of Health said recently in a statement that the word “Dealcoholised” must be printed in uniform letters together with the name of the alcoholic beverage, if the product is made from normal fermentation process with the alcohol removed later.

Wordings like “zero alcohol”, “alcohol free”, “no alcohol”, “non-alcoholic” or other words and expressions of similar meaning are not allowed on products of this kind.

Terms like “soft drink”, “juices” or any words or expressions that indicates, suggests or implies that the dealcoholised alcoholic beverage is a soft drink or juice are also not allowed.

Malaysia is a multi-cultural country with Islam as its official religion, about 64 percent of the country’s population practise Islam.

Dutch brewer Heineken caused controversy in the country in 2019 when it introduced its non-alcoholic beer Heineken 0.0.

Many Malaysian critics were quick to point out that despite not containing any alcohol, this drink is not permissible for Muslims as it is made from the same fermentation process as in other alcohol products.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department, the country’s top Islamic body, suggested it is necessary to send a clear message to Muslims to avoid them being misled by its alcohol-free name.

The Malaysian government then started to legislate new labelling requirements and the new regulations became effective recently.

(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)

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