The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation proposes to exclude the concept of “special beer” from the technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) “On the safety of alcoholic beverages”, TASS reports with reference to the response of Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Sazanov to the request of the head of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy Andrei Kutepov. The ministry believes that the concept, which is understood as beer with the addition of fruit and berry and vegetable raw materials, is misleading consumers.
“It is proposed to exclude the term” special beer “from the technical regulation … in order to eliminate the risk of misleading consumers about the composition and quality of products,” the agency said in its response to the senator’s request.
The technical regulations of the EAEU, which includes the concept of “special beer”, was adopted in 2018 and will come into force in 2022. In April 2021, Vedomosti reported that the Association of Beer Producers, which includes AB InBev Efes, Baltika (Carlsberg Group) and Heineken, proposed to change the definition of special beer prescribed in the regulations. The largest Russian brewing companies proposed to reduce the minimum allowable share of beer from 80% to 50%, as well as allow grain to be added to it.
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