A tangy fermented tea called kombucha has moved from the natural foods
aisle to the mainstream. But it's also moved into the hot seat amid
renewed concerns that it can contain low levels of alcohol.
Five years after alcohol levels detected in kombucha prompted nationwide
recalls, federal authorities again are warning producers to relabel
their products to indicate alcohol content or face fines. But this time
around dozens of producers are resisting, and have asked for new federal
tests to help them avoid running afoul of alcohol laws.
Kombucha is a tea that has been fermented with bacteria and yeast,
giving it a tart, vinegar-like zip and high levels of bacteria that some
believe impart health benefits. And it's hugely popular. Sales of
kombucha jumped nearly five times between 2013 and 2015, to about $600
million a year, according to retail analysts at Markets and Markets.
The tea's fermentation process dates back centuries, but its popularity
in recent years has landed kombucha in the sights of the U.S. Alcohol
and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. That's because the fermentation
process can give the drink too much alcohol for it to be legally sold as
a non-alcoholic beverage.
Kombucha makers complain that the alcohol threshold that triggers the
law — 0.5 percent — is too low to intoxicate people, pointing out that
many fruits naturally ferment on shelves to about the same level. But
federal authorities over the years have sent kombucha makers letters
threatening fines when tests indicate that kombucha on store shelves is
too alcoholic.
Kombucha tea naturally walks the line of what federal authorities
consider an alcoholic beverage. Yeast and sugars in the tea create both
the desired bacteria and alcohol. A kombucha tea can edge toward 1
percent alcohol if it is aged and not refrigerated. That's about a
quarter as strong as a Bud Light, which is 4.2 percent alcohol, but
still is too alcoholic to be sold to minors.
The latest federal intervention in the kombucha market came late this
summer, when fine letters went to an undisclosed number of kombucha
makers nationwide, said bureau spokesman Tom Hogue. He declined to
specify how many brewers' products failed alcohol tests, or how many
producers have been fined. "What we're concerned about here is that when
a consumer picks up a product, they know the product is alcoholic,"
Hogue said.
The letters have kombucha brewers on edge.
"It's almost like a witch hunt," said Tom Nieder, founder of Companion
Kombucha in St Louis. He hasn't received an enforcement letter, but said
brewers are fighting comparisons to alcohol or other drinks.
Kombucha is one of many fermented foods enjoying a renaissance. From
kimchi (a Korean pickled cabbage dish) to kefir (fermented milk with a
yogurt-like tang), fermented foods deliver "good bacteria" to the
digestive system. Some fermented drinks — such as pulque, a milky agave
drink native to Mexico that often is about 3 percent alcohol — have
always been sold as alcoholic beverages.
Kombucha brewers say the agency needs a new
alcohol tester specific to
fermented drinks. They say the commonly used test to determine alcohol
by volume (often listed as ABV on alcoholic beverages) doesn't account
for naturally occurring sediment in kombucha, from bits of tea leaves to
strands of yeast.
"We're working on a more accurate test that will show people that
kombucha is not an alcoholic beverage," said Hannah Crum, head of the
Los Angeles-based Kombucha Brewers International group, an industry
advocate.
The federal agency says it is interested in an alcohol test specific to
fermented beverages. But in the meantime, it says it won't stop issuing
fines when it gets reports of products that exceed alcohol limits using
existing tests.
The kombucha testing dilemma caught the interest of a Colorado
congressman who wrote to the bureau seeking a reprieve for some fined
kombucha makers. In his Sept. 14 letter, Democratic Rep. Jared Polis
argued that kombucha stays below the alcohol threshold when
refrigerated. "Eight spoiled kombuchas are roughly the equivalent of one
beer, but that doesn't mean we should regulate it like we do alcohol —
it makes absolutely no sense," Polis wrote.
The agency politely declined the reprieve request, saying it won't hold
off fining kombucha makers until there's a new test. Instead the agency
re-released an industry bulletin about the testing policy.
"Punishing kombucha producers for a grocery store's or consumer's error
is like punishing a farmer when a supermarket sells spoiled milk," Polis
wrote back via an email.
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