The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has reversed their approval for Palcohol, a powdered alcohol substance, after revealing it was issued the approval because of an error, according to the Associated Press.
Tom Hogue, a representative for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, confirmed to AP the product was never approved, but did not explain how the error occurred. Lipsmark, the company that owns Palcohol, has since agreed to surrender their approvals to the federal bureau.
However, Robert Lehrman, who runs a beverage law website, told AP the product had to have passed through many stages before getting to the label stage.
"An oversight of this nature does not ring true to me," Lehrman said, adding the bureau may stirred trouble with lawmakers who wanted to know more about the powdered alcohol.
Palcohol is a powdered alcohol product made from dehydrated vodka and rum and sealed in an air-tight package, NPR reports. Lipsmark has also created flavors based off of popular mixed drinks such as cosmopolitans, mojitos and lemon drops.
Lipsmark has released a statement regarding the confusion surrounding their product, claiming many news outlets have misrepresented the facts about their Palcohol:
After seeing countless stories on Palcohol, it's amazing how many news outlets have so many facts wrong about Palcohol. "News" organizations seem to copy what another organization reports. The first stories about Palcohol didn't get the facts right...and then almost all succeeding stories, "copied" from the first ones got the facts wrong also. Some mistakes were that we were surprised that we didn't know Palcohol was approved (we knew it was approved) or that a package has 65% alcohol by volume (it has 10-12%) and many more mistakes. And most organizations are quoting things out of context just to make the story sound more sensational.
You can read Lipsmark's full statement about Palcohol on their official websit here.
