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Additive Free Alliance (AFA) has relaunched as an impartial, nonprofit entity with a board of administrators and a brand new mission, in keeping with a press launch. The transfer was in response to what the corporate describes as “overwhelming client demand” for elevated transparency within the labeling of not simply tequila, however numerous different spirits.
The AFA was initially based in 2020 by tequila transparency advocacy website Tequila Matchmaker. This relaunch marks a brand new chapter for the AFA, following the March 2024 raid on Tequila Matchmaker cofounders Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin’s Jalisco residence on behalf of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT).
Now based mostly in Kentucky, the brand new AFA — which has filed for nonprofit 501(c)(3) standing with the IRS — has expanded to incorporate additive-free certifications for different agave-based spirits and agave-adjacent merchandise, in keeping with the discharge. These embrace raicilla and mezcal, with merchandise like agave syrups and different agave-related merchandise anticipated to hitch the Alliance quickly. The primary product to obtain this new certification is Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka, which was developed by the crew that created Patrón and is distilled from one hundred pc agave.
“Customers are more and more considerate and deliberate in regards to the merchandise they buy and the food and drinks they devour, notably in a world crammed with misinformation and intelligent advertising and marketing,” mentioned Lee Applbaum, president and COO of Weber Ranch Vodka dad or mum firm Spherical 2 Spirits, within the launch. “The Additive Free Alliance offers customers, bartenders, and retailers goal, verifiable info they want and deserve, whereas giving producers like us a strategy to reinforce our transparency, integrity, and belief. It’s a win-win.”
The AFA at the moment has over 100 manufacturers, roughly 400 merchandise, over 125 retail companions, and 42 distilleries in participation. Every model and distillery that elects to hitch the AFA agrees for every of their merchandise bought in U.S. retail shops to bear impartial Liquid Chromatography lab evaluation carried out by AFA. This liquid analysis, along with a sensorial evaluation, is designed to substantiate these spirits are freed from components together with synthetic flavors and sweeteners, glycerin, propylene glycol, and sugar.
As Nosotros Tequila founder Carlos Soto defined within the launch, the newly expanded AFA will rely completely on lab-based testing to substantiate whether or not merchandise are additive-free. Representatives from the Alliance will now not be required to go to distilleries in particular person, opening the door for extra manufacturers and distilleries to doubtlessly obtain certification. As a substitute, every participant within the Alliance covers lab-related bills themselves, and following their first anniversary in this system, they’ll pay a charge to AFA to help with random lab testing and operational prices.
“It’s vital to notice that the AFA isn’t in opposition to manufacturers that use components,” says Grover, who’s additionally board president on the AFA, within the launch. “From the very starting, our objective was merely to hunt transparency in product labeling. The AFA isn’t a regulator or an official certification. We’re an impartial group of likeminded member corporations which can be dedicated to transparency, group, and honesty.”
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