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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Why does my wine contain milk products?

This unusual question was posed recently by a customer who was rather surprised to find the following label on the back of her Chardonnay - 'This wine has been produced with aid of milk products and traces may remain' thus leading to the perplexing question of what milk was doing in a bottle of wine.

For the answer to this we can look back to 2002, when the Food Standards Authority (FSANZ) revised the food standard for Australia and New Zealand. Within this revision, wine was more formally recognised as a food, thus subjecting wine to the same (world class) standards of health and safety as 'food products'.

Also in the revision was a change in food labelling, including the advent of the allergen warning - a declaration requiring producers to specify if certain substances have been used as an ingredient, food additive or processing aid and are present in the final product. These substances have been identified as allergens - substances that can cause an adverse allergic reaction in humans. They include:

- Cereals containing gluten and their products
- Crustacea and their products
- Egg and egg products
- Fish and fish products
- Milk and milk products
- Nuts and sesame seeds and their products
- Peanuts and soybeans, and their products
- Added sulphites in concentrations of 10mg/kg or more
- Royal jelly
- Bee pollen
- Propolis

Now wine is a classically natural product (fermented grape juice) with stringent laws on what can be 'added' to wine, yet there are some quite unusual natural products that are used in the production process. Previously, little attention was paid to these products, however the increased awareness of allergens and the increased prevalence of allergies ultimately spurred the food standards authority to introduce the requirement for the allergen warning.

Some products used by winemakers include several foods (listed above) which are recognised as common allergens, including milk, eggs and fish, all of which are used as fining and clarifying agents (leading to brighter, cleaner wines). Egg whites, for example, are sometimes added to red wines to remove astringent tannins. The protein in the egg whites bind to the tannins, which then polymerise and form a deposit in the bottom of the barrel. Before bottling, the wine undergoes a process of racking, whereby the wine is seperated from the solid sediments, leaving the egg white deposit behind in the barrel (thus little, if any, actual egg white actually makes it way into the final wine - particularly after the wine passes through standard filtration).

Some of the other substances used by winemakers include casein, a protein derived from milk (which is used for clarification), or Isinglass, which is derived from fish swim bladders. Some winemakers also add tannin to red wine to give it more 'body' and the tannin can occasionally be derived from chestnuts.

The reality is that most of these products are used largely as production aids and the additions are so minimal, with such low concentration in the final product, that they are viewed as essentially innocuous. A study funded by the Australian government wine & grape research body (GWRDC) found that negligible levels of allergens remain in finished wines, and as yet there has been no medical evidence to support any linkage between wine fined with egg, fish or milk products and allergic reactions.

So next time you spot a wine 'produced with the aid of fish products' think allergies and not seafood
Andrew Graham

32 comments:

  1. This unusual question was posed recently by a customer who was rather surprised to find the following label on the back of her Chardonnay. Bordeaux wine

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  2. oh em gee! I'm lactose intolerant and a lover of wine, this is NOT good news! Thanks for sharing.

    www.dairyfreequeen01.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. If you are lactose intolerant then you do not need to worry about the addition of casein to wine. Lactose is the sugar found in milk whereas casein is one of the proteins. People with cows milk protein allergy or intolerance can digest lactose without problems and people with lactose intolerance can digest milk proteins without problems.
      As a blogger on this subject you might want to find out a bit more about the difference between the two for benefit of your readers, as well as yourself. Well done on the product reviews though, I might be buying some Tesco doughnuts later this week :)

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    2. Currently got a fat face and restricted breathing, curtesy of a pinot grigio. Just discovered it had milk in it! Not impressed.

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    3. Intolerances are complicated and can affect people in different ways. as previously said there is a difference between lactose and dairy intolerance but both can have horrendous side affects.

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  3. i would like to no how long will the cheap wine last with this crap egg and milk in its makeing after opening it

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    1. You are everything that is wrong with the internet.

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  4. Can't spell either

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  5. i am a vegetarian and I recently bought a classy wine just to realise that it had mentioned".....milk and fish products and traces may remain"... I chucked the wine in the glass which i had poured.. fish or fish remains or anything related to the "flesh" is definitely not vegetarian.. what do I do?

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    Replies
    1. The amount of animal protein used in wine is equivalent to the occasional bug in your greens.

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    2. Buy wine from Coop who clearly label VEGAN wine

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    3. Did you read the post? It says the egg stays in the bottom of the cask. Little if any of these animal products remain in the finished product.

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    4. That does not matter!!! The use of animal has still been used in the product!!!! Therefore not vegan or vegetarian!!! Specially as traces CAN be left behind!!!

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  6. Time for cop on, too much information poorly misunderstood. 1% Of the population are coelics, however in our bistro which seats 28 people, one night we had 14 people who said they needed a gluten free meal because of allergys, BS

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    Replies
    1. Except you can be gluten intolerant without being Coeliac. My partner was tested and found to be gluten intolerant but not having Coeliacs or Crohns disease. So shows how you misunderstand a little bit of information too.

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  7. "cheap wine, crap egg and milk" I love it! Me box of goon has gone rotten! F'oaff whadi do?

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  8. A serious question spoilt by the usual internet fucktards.

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  9. You won't get allergic reactions and it will not spoil since it clearly says it's removed before the final product is bottled and corked! Read the article guys....

    "Before bottling, the wine undergoes a process of racking, whereby the wine is seperated from the solid sediments, leaving the egg white deposit behind in the barrel. The reality is that most of these products are used largely as production aids and the additions are so minimal, with such low concentration in the final product, that they are viewed as essentially innocuous. A study funded by the Australian government wine & grape research body (GWRDC) found that negligible levels of allergens remain in finished wines, and as yet there has been no medical evidence to support any linkage between wine fined with egg, fish or milk products and allergic reactions."

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    1. I have an allergy to gluten and dairy products. Got the diet sorted and rarely have problems.....until.....we made a chicken risotto that had white wine in the recipe. After the meal and for the next 10 days i felt horrible. Couldnt put my finger on what was causing it. As a long shot i checked the wine cask as it was the only thing different in our cooking. "Processed with Milk as a processing aid"!
      Only people WITHOUT an allergy will say that you cant get a reaction from these things.
      Wine was the last thing i thought would have milk in it.
      I wouldnt believe for a minute that i am the only person who has had this reaction. Had i not have had the wine cask to refer to after becoming sick i may never have known what the cause was. Its easy to be sceptical about the existance of such risks......not so easy for the people who do indeed suffer from reactions to these products.

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    2. I agree, Im also intolerant to dairy. Always get sick after drinking wine. Despite evreybody telling this is not true. But I am the one who is in pain!!

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  10. I have been having allergic reaction to the wines when previously I didn't, the introduction of casein has been the problem, especially if you are allergic to dairy products

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    1. Oh yeah now that they introduced casein, ...
      Except the article clearly states this has been done for ages and only now it needs to be labeled and told to people (whom now suddenly react allergic)....

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  11. I have been having allergic reaction to the wines when previously I didn't, the introduction of casein has been the problem, especially if you are allergic to dairy products

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  12. What all of this does not do is answer the question as to WHY there is milk in wine.

    It may now be on the label because of legislation, but, I ask again, why is it there in the first place?

    Anybody know?

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  13. The comment "found that negligible levels of allergens remain in finished wines, and as yet there has been no medical evidence to support any linkage between wine fined with egg, fish or milk products and allergic reactions." is incorrect and misleading. The amount is largely irrelevant as allergic reactions occur at the molecular level. If you are casein intolerant avoid consumption completely.

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  14. I bought a box of red wine and after one glass it affected me. Looking at the label it stated 'contains milk and egg. It was Australian. I left the rest of it. Bought a bottle of red wine but again was affected after one glass. It stated it contained egg & milk. Again it was Australian. I never ever dreamt that wine would contains these substances. When I next went shopping I checked and sure enough all the Australian wines had milk & egg in them. So I'm afraid you are misleading people if you state they won't be affected by milk in their wine. The writing on the labels is so tiny too, when it is such an important thing to know the writing should be much larger.

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  15. My wife and I have a lactose intolerant issue and have noted a wildly upset stomach after drinking some wines. Checked the Label - May contain milk products. Tried a bottle labeled - Sulphites only. No problems. Unless you have experienced a lactose attack - uncontrollable sh..ing everywhere without notice, it may not seem like an issue!!

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  16. I have recently become allergic to fish and seafood at the age of 60. I have discovered that I cannot tolerate some wines and beers due the use of isinglass. I would like the use of isinglass to be declared on the product for my (and others) safety.

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  19. Thank you for answering a question we only came up with tonight while getting up close and personal with our wine (Chardonnay) cask! :)

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