Nutricom Food and Beverages which manufactures Kombucha says the high alcoholic content of the company’s product may be a result of continuation of fermentation process due to varying storage conditions after the product goes to the market.
The company has been under heavy criticism after Nation Newspaper reported that an independent laboratory analysis found the drinks with alcoholic content of as high as 8.0 percent.
This is despite labels on bottles of Kombucha drink displaying that the drink is a non-alcoholic beverage with alcoholic content of as low as 0.005 percent.
Following the news, people testified against the claimed non-alcoholic status of the product as some said they were once fined by Traffic Police after a breathalyzer showed intake of more than recommended alcohol, yet they drunk had the said health drink Kombucha.
However, Nutricom Food and Beverages the manufacturers of Kombucha says the company has never produced Kombucha that contains higher alcoholic content than what is mentioned on the label.
Through a press statement released on Monday this week, the company says the higher alcoholic content may be a result of continuation of the fermentation process of the product after production.
“On the question of varying alcohol contents, we need to underline here that at the point of production, alcohol content in our product is 0.005 as indicated on the product sticker.
“However, due to varying storage conditions as the product goes to the market, which may result in the continuation of the fermentation process of the product – the alcohol content may slightly vary with what was at production,” reads part of the statement.
The company says it is a law-abiding company and its operations are guided by strict compliance with the laws that govern production and manufacturing processes in the country.
Nutricom Food and Beverages says it does not have a record of non-compliance for the past 7 years it has been producing Kombucha and added that in all these years, its products were tested and cleared by the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS).
The Company has since said that it will continue to work with all relevant regulatory institutions in the country to deliver a product that meets the demands and expectations of customers.
In a Sunday publication, The Nation Newspaper reported that they took the samples of Kombucha to the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) laboratory in Blantyre for independent testing and analysis.
It is reported that after the samples were tested, one Health Kumbucha showed a 7.35 percent alcoholic content while Kombucha Ginger had 5.09 percent alcoholic content instead of the 0.005 percent indicated on the stickers.
On the other hand, the results showed that Kombucha Divine imported from Zambia had 8.02 percent alcoholic content.
