Shine Muscat Wine Allegedly Contains Chemical Residue, Badanas: We Will Conduct An Investigation

JAKARTA - The Shine Muscat wine from China is busy being discussed on social media because it is suspected of containing chemical residue. This issue also raises deep concerns about food security circulating in the market.

Responding to this, NFA Head Arief Prasetyo Adi revealed that the National Food Agency as the Food Safety Competent Authority (OKKP) is committed to protecting food security in Indonesia.

Therefore, Arief said that his party would investigate imported fresh food commodities circulating in the domestic market, including muscat wine from China.

"Regarding reports in the media regarding the Shine Muscat wine from China, NFA as OKKP will conduct further investigations," he said in an official statement, Wednesday, November 30.

Arief said the investigations carried out would include a laboratory sampling and testing process to ensure the safety of products circulating in the Indonesian market.

"This step is taken as part of our commitment to ensuring that food, especially fresh food circulating in Indonesia, is safe for consumption," said Arief.

Furthermore, Arief said that based on Presidential Decree No. 66 of 2021 which is a follow-up to Law 18 of 2012 concerning Food, one of the powers of the National Food Agency is to ensure that fresh food which is circulated is safe. In its implementation, it is carried out in two ways, namely the issuance of permits and supervision in circulation.

"We urge the whole community not to be easily influenced by unverified information. NFA will continue to provide information related to the safety of fresh foods in a transparent manner in accordance with applicable fresh food safety control procedures," said Arief.

Meanwhile, Acting Deputy for Diversity of Consumption and Food Safety NFA Yusra Egganti revealed that her party continues to strengthen regulations regarding the Restrictional Restrictions on pesticides (BMR) for food safety.

The BMR pesticide standard is regulated through the Minister of Agriculture Regulation No. 53 of 2018. Currently, NFA is perfecting the BMR standard in the National Food Agency Regulation which is in the harmonization stage, taking into account consumption and food practices in Indonesia," he explained.

In line with the Regulation of the National Food Agency No. 1 of 2023 concerning Fresh Food Label, NFA also requires the inclusion of recitation instructions on labels to ensure that products are safe for consumption.

"Especially for wine, we require information before consumption. This washing process is very important to reduce the risk of residue or contamination that may be left on the surface of the fruit, considering that wine is a commodity that is generally consumed directly without being peeling," he said.

In addition, he continued, Bapanas also appealed to the public to always apply food security practices such as reading the labels listed, carefully before buying, so that people are increasingly educated about the importance of food security.

Yusra added that fresh food products that have a distribution permit have gone through the process of assessing food safety requirements, one of which is through laboratory tests.

However, to improve food security, he continued, the process of monitoring food products in circulation continues to be carried out by the National Food Agency together with the Food Affairs Office as OKKPD regularly, and is reported through the PSAT Information System (Segar Plant Origin).

"From the sampling results carried out in 2023 and 2024, it shows that the wine is circulating below the BMR threshold so that it is safe to consume. However, it is related to the Shine Muscat Wine which is an issue in Thailand, according to the direction of the Head of the National Food Agency, we will follow up with further investigations," Yusra explained.