Government withdraws from decree limits for use of maize and other cereals in the production of beers

The federal government decided to withdraw from a decree the limits of use of maize and other cereals in beers manufactured in Brazil. The Official Gazette of this Tuesday (9) brings the Decree No. 9,902, amending the legislation of 2009. The decree published this Tuesday withdrew from the text the limit of 45% in the use of so-called "breweries", cereals such as corn and rice, used as substitutes for vanilla soda barley for being cheaper. Now, this regulation is established only in a normative instruction defined by the Ministry of Agriculture. In a statement, the Ministry stated that the current normative instruction (54/2001), which defines these limits, remains in force and that there is no interest in decreasing the current limit for the use of Brewer's adjoined. For the next few days changes are foreseen in this regulation of 2001, but the technical area of the folder states that the limits will not be altered, only the classification of the products, such as labels, and the change of patterns in the production of the beverage. In the decree published on Tuesday, one of the paragraphs removed from the decree said that "part of the barley malt may be replaced by breweries, whose employment may not exceed 45% in relation to the primitive extract". In the decree published on Tuesday, one of the paragraphs removed from the decree said that "part of the barley malt may be replaced by breweries, whose employment may not exceed 45% in relation to the primitive extract". The requirement, however, makes an exception, stating that the collection of the three samples "does not apply to cases in which the Constitution of the three units for sample purposes makes it unfeasible, damaging or unnecessary for the performance of the analysis of the product or beverage", Without specifying in which situations the collection would unfeasible the analysis. Handcrafted breweries celebrate The publication favors the artisan breweries, which for years face difficulties to obtain approval from the Ministry of Agriculture their labels, due to bureaucratic issues, according to the president of the Brazilian Association of Artisanal Beer (Abracerva) , Carlo Lapolli. The executive says that the main change to the category is the permission of the use of ingredients of animal origin in the production of beer. "Once a beer sweeted with honey was not considered beer, it was sold as mixed alcoholic beverage. The same happened with lactose-sweeteners, another common sweetener in the artisan brewers, "says the executive. Lapolli adds that representatives from the brewing sector have been discussing with federal governments since 2013 changes in the legislation of the beverage industry. The decree published in today's edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) contemplates requests from the sector, according to Lapolli. In relation to this rule, the leader says he does not expect changes in this percentage by the government. "In all conversations between the private sector and the government, it was never said by the ministry that there would be an intention to change that percentage. By the meetings that have been made I believe that the percentage should be maintained, "says Lapolli. The executive also points out that the decree releases the Ministry of Agriculture to edit a normative instruction to standardize the labelling issues. "The normative instruction should simplify the registration of products, altering, for example, the classification for the primitive extract [quantity of substances of the wort that gave rise to beer] and color, among other technical information." Abracerva was founded in 2013 and has 650 associated artisan breweries. In the country, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, there are currently 1000 artisan breweries in operation.