Ministry To Adopt Stricter Monitoring Of Alcoholic

Jakarta, Aug 29 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ministry of Industry has issued a regulation number 71/M-IND/PER/7/2012 to monitor and control the use of alcoholic beverages, a ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. "We have issued the regulation for three reasons. Alcoholic beverages impact the lives of Indonesians as there has been an increase in the demand for traditional alcoholic beverages, partially because of a surge in demand of such drinks by foreign tourists," ministry spokesman Hartono said in a press statement. The regulation will monitor and control alcoholic beverages defined as those drinks, which include ethanol (C2 H5 OH) and are processed from agricultural materials containing carbohydrates obtained through fermentation and distillation or fermentation without distillation, either by adding other ingredients or not, as well as those processed by mixing a concentrate with ethanol or by diluting drinks with ethanol. Meanwhile, pure alcohol is currently defined by the ministry as a fermented product with an ethanol content of above 55 percent, and classified as non-food grade, Hartono said. The ministry classifies alcoholic beverages under three heads, namely class A where beverages have a 1 to 5 percent ethanol content, class B is those, which have an ethanol content of 5 to 20 percent, and class C with a 20 to 55 percent ethanol content. Companies producing alcoholic beverages are required to follow the Indonesian National Standard (SNI), which lays out the technical requirements needed to be met for class, type of product, production processes, machinery and equipment manufacturing, quality control, and laboratory by the alcoholic beverage industry, the statement noted.