Letter: Letters : What's in a drink?

From Duncan Campbell

Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Your correspondent is being a little alarmist
(Letters, 3 May, p 55). The
permitted additives to be found in wines are controlled by European Union
legislation and glycerol is present (only in some vodkas) at levels of a
fraction of a gram per bottle.

I, and my colleagues in public analysis laboratories up and down the country,
routinely analyse wines and other drinks for the presence and concentrations of
additives.

I share his concern over labelling, not so much for traditional drinks but
for alcopops, which are entirely manufactured and, as such, should carry a full
list of ingredients.