Avaliação da conformidade da rotulagem de kombuchas em relação à legislação brasileira

Abstract

Food labels play an important role, as consumers obtain access to food information through them. This study aimed to evaluate the labeling information of kombuchas produced in Brazil and their adequacy to the food labeling standards. Itwas adescriptive cross-sectional study carried out between July and August 2020. Thirty kombuchas of different brands were analyzed. Information regarding the sales denomination, identification of origin, liquid content, nutritional information, ingredient list, information on the presence of gluten, alcohol content, nutritional and functional/healthproperty claims, and the presence of prohibited expressions on the label wascollected,and the compliance of this information with labeling legislation was assessed. None of the products met all the labeling standards. The most frequent information wassales denomination (100%), placement of prohibited expressions (93.3%), net content (90%),and functional claims (56.7%). Among the information available on the kombucha labels, the ones that showed the most non-compliance with the legislation were: functional claims (100%), use of prohibited expressions (100%), liquid content (96.3%), and sales denomination (76.7%). Despite the mandatory nature of most of the information analyzed, all beverages presented non-conformities on their labels. This finding points to the need for more rigorous inspection toguarantee correct and reliable information to consumers.