How to register your kombucha in Argentina
In Argentina, kombucha has been a food recognized by the Argentine Food Code since 2022, and water kefir since 2024. To produce and sell you need two registrations, one for the establishment and one for the product, both filed through the SIFeGA system with your jurisdiction's health authority. This is the path, in producer language.
Argentina was among the first countries in the region to give kombucha its own standard, and the numbers it set are almost identical to Brazil's. Having an article in the Code is good news: it turns kombucha into a product with clear rules, instead of a grey area.
Kombucha has had its article since 2022
Joint Resolution 1/2022, published in the Official Gazette on 7 July 2022, added Article 1084 bis to Chapter XIII, "Fermented Beverages". There, kombucha is defined as a non-alcoholic, carbonated fermented beverage made from an infusion of Camellia sinensis (tea) and sugars, with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY).
Its legal parameters are concrete: pH between 2.5 and 4.2, alcohol content of at most 0.5% vol at 20 ºC, and volatile acidity between 30 and 130 mEq/l. One point worth being clear about: the Code recognizes only non-alcoholic kombucha. Above 0.5% vol your drink no longer fits this definition; there is no "kombucha with alcohol" category. The label carries the notice "Beber con moderación" (drink in moderation), and if unpasteurized, also "Mantener refrigerado" (keep refrigerated) and "No agitar el contenido del envase" (do not shake).
And water kefir, since 2024
Later came water kefir: Joint Resolution 7/2024, published on 14 August 2024, created Article 1.084 tris, defining it as the beverage obtained by fermenting water kefir grains in sugared water. Its parameters are pH between 3 and 4.5 and an alcohol content of up to 3% vol, quite a bit more than kombucha, a difference not to confuse when labeling. The Code treats it as a product distinct from milk kefir, which sits in Article 576.
The two registrations: RNE and RNPA
You register the establishment first and obtain the RNE (National Establishment Registry), before you start producing. Only with the RNE in hand do you register each product for its RNPA (National Food Product Registry). Both are handled through SIFeGA (the Federal Information System for Food Control Management) with the health authority of your jurisdiction, your province or the City of Buenos Aires.
And there is a requirement the Code's own articles put in writing: any establishment making kombucha or water kefir must run a HACCP system and have a Technical Director (Director Técnico). It is not a general recommendation; it is in the standard for these products.
Provincial, but with national reach
The route is jurisdictional: you register with your province or the City of Buenos Aires, not with a single national body. The upside is that a registered product gains free circulation nationwide (what is called tránsito federal). INAL, part of ANMAT, acts nationally mostly for import and export establishments. Selling only within your province or across the whole country follows the same registration route; what changes is the reach, not the procedure.
The costs vary
Unlike some countries, in Argentina these procedures are fee-based, and the amount is set by each jurisdiction, so there is no single national figure. Check the current fee with the health authority where you will register before you budget; it is information that changes and is worth taking from the source, not from a blog.
Mandatory, not optional
Producing or selling a food product without the corresponding RNE and RNPA is an infraction of Law 18.284, the law that enacts the Food Code. Sanctions range from a fine to seizure of the goods and closure of the establishment. Registering before you sell is far cheaper than the reverse.
After the registration come the records
The RNE and the RNPA are the license to start selling. But the standard asks for something more, every day: a HACCP system sustained by a Technical Director. And that means records, the day-to-day ones: pH readings, lots, traceability, a food-safety plan that actually runs. BrauMo does not file your RNE or your RNPA; that is your paperwork in SIFeGA. It handles the part that comes afterward and never ends: the production records your HACCP and your Technical Director need, ready to show, and in the same app for your kombucha and your water kefir. See BrauMo, at US$29 a month for Latin America.
Official source: the texts of Joint Resolution 1/2022 and Joint Resolution 7/2024, and ANMAT's information on the RNE, RNPA and SIFeGA. This text is producer-to-producer orientation, not legal advice: the norms and your Technical Director are the reference.
Related reading
- How to legally sell kombucha in Mexico: the COFEPRIS aviso, NOM-051 and the 2% line
- HACCP for kombucha: the two control points that matter
- Keeping kombucha under 0.5% ABV
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