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Government approval of powdered alcohol labels was a mistake

Government approval of powdered alcohol labels was a mistake

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"Palcohol," a company that made headlines recently for its plans to sell powdered alcohol in the US, has hit regulatory issues. After receiving label approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the company has seen that endorsement revoked. According to the Associated Press, citing a TTB representative, the approvals were issued in error. It's not clear how or why the accidental approval occurred, but it was apparently revoked yesterday evening. The Palcohol company says it mutually agreed to surrender the approved labels to the TTB due to a discrepancy with the amount of powder contained within each bag or sachet. It also cautions that "this doesn't mean that Palcohol isn't approved. It just means that these labels aren't approved."

The concept behind Palcohol is simple. It will be sold in sachets of powder, each with a different flavor. Drinkers need only tear open a sachet, add some water, and mix. The company says it will arrive with a range of flavors based on popular cocktails including margarita, mojito, and cosmopolitan. A retail launch was planned for this year but when coupled with the other regulatory issues Palcohol products are likely to face, the TTB delay has some experts predicting it's unlikely the product will hit US shelves any time soon.