Foods and Their Adulteration / Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and Regulations Papyras Classics

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Chapter 123

(F. I. D. 3.) Notice to Exporters of Wines. A Recent Law Passed by the Argentine Republic

November, 1904.

The Argentine Republic has passed a new law relating to wines, and especially covering the conditions under which wines are to be imported into that country from foreign countries. There are many provisions of the law which should be known to the producers and exporters of wines from the United States. The full text of the new law of the Argentine Republic is given below:

Article 1. Only those wines obtained by the fermentation of fresh grapes, or simply estacionado, will be considered as natural wines in the Argentine Republic.

Article 2. For the purpose of the present law and of its penal dispositions the following will not be considered as natural wines:

1. Those manufactured with dried grapes.

2. Those manufactured with the cluster (bunch).

3. Those to which there shall have been added substances which, though natural in natural wines, alter the composition of them or modify the equilibrium of the substances composing a natural wine.

4. Red wines containing more than 3.5 percent or less than 2.4 percent of dry extract, the reducing sugar having been deducted. The executive is empowered to authorize a lower limit to the minimum below for bottled or dessert wines.

5. White wines containing less than 1.7 percent of dry extract, the reducing sugar having been deducted, with the exception of fine wines in bottles.

6. Mixtures of wines enumerated in the five preceding paragraphs with natural wines.

Article 3. The following will be considered as lawful œnological practices:

For musts: The addition of saccharose (sugar), of concentrated must, of citric, malic, tartaric, and sulfurous acids, pure and neutralized by pure potassium and calcium carbonates.

For wines: The addition of citric, tartaric, malic, tannic, and carbonic acids, of potassium and calcium carbonate, of neutral potassium tartrate, of sulfites of sodium and calcium, and of pure sulfurous anhydrids.

Pure kaolin and pure albumens and gelatins may be employed in the clarification of wines.

Article 4. It is absolutely forbidden to add to the wine or to sell as such—

1. Liquids containing foreign coloring matters, glucose from starch, mineral acids, saccharin and other artificial edulcorant matters, abrastol, salicylic acid and others analogous thereto, salts of aluminum, strontium, barium, lead, and, in general, all bodies not normally existing in the musts of grapes.

2. Wines containing more than 2 grams of sulfate per liter. A larger proportion will not be tolerated except for dessert wines.

3. Wines containing more than 0.2 percent of sodium chlorid.

4. Wines containing per liter more than 200 milligrams of sulfurous acid and 20 milligrams of free sulfurous anhydrid.

5. Damaged wines or wines altered in consequence of disease may not be sold nor made the object of commerce. These liquids shall be distilled under supervision of agents of the Treasury or of the national chemical laboratories, and only the alcohols resulting from their distillation may be utilized.

Article 5. The executive is empowered to augment or modify the authorized œnological corrections in conformity with the progress of science and the local conditions. He is empowered to add, likewise, to those specified in the present law other substances recognized as injurious by their quantity or quality.

Article 6. The following treatments followed in the preparation of fine wines are considered legal:

1. The mixture of several natural wines produced from different classes of grapes or from different harvests.

2. Limited alcoholization in order to insure the preservation of wine.

3. The addition of concentrated must and of pure alcohol in order to obtain special dessert wines.

4. The addition of saccharose (sugar), of alcohol, of aromatic and bitter substances, in order to obtain wines whose composition is similar to vermouth or medicinal wines.

5. The addition of anhydrous carbonic acid and sugar for the preparation of sparkling wines. The alcoholization authorized by the present law is for the purpose of insuring the preservation of wine. The alcohol employed for this purpose and all other products, the usage of which is authorized, must be chemically pure.

Article 7. The beverages enumerated in article 2 and all other similar beverages shall bear the name of “artificial beverages,” whatever be their nature or process of manufacture, with the exception of sparkling wines, vermouth, medicinal wines, and cider.

Article 8. In case natural wines should contain a proportion of dry extract inferior or superior to that indicated in paragraphs 4 and 5 of article 2, the source of this extract will be determined in so far as it concerns the wine of the country by the analysis of grapes serving for the manufacture of this wine, and in so far as it concerns foreign wines by information based on official analytical data and of origin.

Article 10. Beverages which do not comply with the conditions determined by article 1 may not be imported, circulated, or offered for sale as natural wines, and must bear upon a part visible to the recipient the indication of the classification to which they correspond according to article 7 above.

Article 11. Foreign wines which shall be imported into the territory of Argentine for consumption must be sold in the original casks showing their origin, or put in bottles under the supervision of Government agents and accompanied by certificates of analysis from the country where they have been made. Imported wines containing more than 3.5 percent of dry extract free from reducing sugar shall be sold under the supervision of Government agents.

Article 12. Foreign wines shall be subjected to chemical analysis upon their entrance into the country; native wines shall be subjected to the same treatment before being delivered for consumption. This analysis will be made in the national laboratories established or to be established in Buenos Ayres, Rosario, Mendoza, San Juan, Entre Rios, Cordoba, Catamarca, Salta, and Tucuman, and in other localities where the Government may decide to establish them.

Article 14. The infractions of the provisions of article 10 of the law shall be punishable by the confiscation of the merchandise with or without a penalty of 50 centavos per liter or of a month’s imprisonment of the offenders for each 1,000 liters of liquid or fraction thereof.

Article 15. The infractions of the provisions of article 4 shall be punished by the destruction of the wines and a fine of 30 paper centavos per liter, or five days’ imprisonment for each 1,000 liters of liquid or fraction thereof.

Article 19. The rules and proceedings established by law No. 3884 will remain in force. From January 1, 1905, foreign wines containing more than 3.5 percent dry extract, free of reducing sugar, shall be subjected to the provisions of the tariff.

Attention is particularly called to the character of the wines which will be admitted and the fact that such wines should be accompanied by an official certificate of composition and also of origin. Under the authority of Congress the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to furnish analyses and certificates of food products intended for export to foreign countries (F. I. D. No. 1).

Under this law exporters who desire analyses of their products to show that they are in conformity with the laws of the country to which they are exported may apply to the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture for such an investigation. The analysis blanks for making the application, instructions for taking the samples, and form of affidavit to accompany the samples will be furnished intending exporters on application. In this connection attention is called to the fact that often American food products are rejected at foreign ports, and as a result thereof complaint is made to the State Department and samples of the rejected foods are furnished for analysis. The Department of Agriculture always complies with the requests of the State Department for assistance in adjusting difficulties of this kind. It is evident, however, that all such difficulties would be avoided by shippers taking advantage of the provision of the law quoted above, to secure the proper certification of their products before shipment.