Kombucha Law Webinar

by Robert C. Lehrman on November 9, 2015

Last week I had the honor of participating in AHPA’s webinar on kombucha law. Part of the recording is above and here. The American Herbal Products Association has been active since 1982, and now has more than 300 food, beverage and supplement members. It was an honor because of the eminence of my co-presenters:

1. Justin Prochnow, FDA lawyer at Greenberg Traurig, Denver
2. Will Garvin, FDA lawyer at Buchanan Ingersoll, Washington
3. Peter Evich, Lobbyist, Van Scoyoc Associates, Washington
4. Art Libertucci, Consultant, The Buckles Group, Washington

Justin spoke on bottle bills issues. Will covered FDA labeling. Peter covered pending legislative issues. Art helped organize the webinar. I spoke on the various TTB issues raised by kombucha.
It was also an honor because the issues are so timely and challenging. Kombucha is surging in popularity. It raises difficult issues such as:

1. is it beer, wine, cereal beverage, malt beverage, food, supplement, or some combination
2. what TTB permits may be needed
3. does it need FDA or TTB labeling, or both
4. what taxes apply
5. what penalties may apply, if you blow it

The entire video is about 2 hours, but I have chopped it down to the 30 minutes or so that covers the TTB issues (1-5 as listed above). The entirety, with about 20 minutes of questions and answers, is available from AHPA as here.