RTD飲料、ミキサー、エナジー、機能性 - 飲料のルールを網羅
飲料には独自のRACC(§ 101.12 Table 2)があり、丸めの慣行も異なります。糖類の表示は市場ごとに異なる警告を引き起こします。
飲料のRACCと1回分の慣行
水やRTD飲料の1回分は240 mL / 8 fl ozが既定値です。濃縮飲料は30 mL、エナジーショットには専用の値があります。FDAの表からRACCを自動的に選択します。
飲料固有のFOPしきい値
メキシコの糖類オクタゴンは、飲料ではエネルギー比5%以上で発動します(固形物は10%)。チリの「ALTO EN AZÚCARES」は100 mLあたり5 gで発動します。FOP対象のすべての市場について、飲料固有の基準を適用します。
カフェイン + 甘味料の表示
アルゼンチンのLey 27.642 に基づく「CONTIENE CAFEÍNA」「CONTIENE EDULCORANTES」の枠表示は、該当する場合に発動します。エクアドル、ペルー、ウルグアイにも同様の表示があります。
複数フレーバーのSKU管理
同じベースで10種類のフレーバー? ベースを保存し、複製してフレーバーエッセンスだけ調整すれば、10種類のラベルを生成できます。原材料表示もSKUごとに自動調整されます。
If it contains juice, you owe a percentage declaration
A beverage that purports to contain juice - by name, by image, or by implication - has to declare its percentage juice content under 21 CFR § 101.30. This catches more products than people expect, because the trigger is what the package suggests rather than what the formula contains.
A sparkling water with a lime on the front and no juice in the bottle raises the question. A "berry" flavoured drink with two percent juice has to say two percent. The declaration sits near the top of the information panel, and it is a common finding in warning letters precisely because brands treat the fruit imagery as marketing rather than as a claim.
Is your energy drink a beverage or a supplement?
This is the single biggest fork in beverage labeling, and brands sometimes pick a side without realising they have.
A product marketed as a conventional beverage carries a Nutrition Facts panel under § 101.9, uses food additives that are permitted for that use, and cannot carry structure/function claims freely. A product marketed as a liquid dietary supplement carries a Supplement Facts panel under § 101.36, operates under DSHEA, and takes the structure/function disclaimer.
What decides it is not the format of the container. The FDA looks at how the product is represented - its name, its labeling, its marketing, the serving size, the packaging format, and whether it is positioned as something you drink for refreshment or take for an effect. A 16 oz can sold in the chiller next to soft drinks reads as a beverage no matter what the panel says.
Getting this wrong means the wrong panel, potentially the wrong permitted ingredients, and claims you are not entitled to make. It is worth deciding deliberately, early, and documenting the reasoning.
If there is alcohol in it, the FDA may not be your regulator
Most alcoholic beverage labeling falls to the TTB - the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau - under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, not to the FDA. That covers distilled spirits, wine above the statutory threshold, and malt beverages made from malted barley and hops.
But the split is not clean, and the exceptions are exactly where the modern drinks market lives. Certain low-alcohol wines, ciders below the threshold, and beers brewed without malted barley or without hops can fall outside TTB's remit and back under the FDA - which means a Nutrition Facts panel and FDA ingredient labeling rather than TTB requirements.
Hard seltzers, sake-based products, and gluten-free beers made from sorghum or rice are the usual candidates for this confusion. If you are anywhere near that boundary, confirm which agency governs your product before you commission artwork, because the two regimes want genuinely different labels.