Absinthe COLA

[rtshfd]

I have two absinthes I'm trying to get approved through the COLA process with approved formulas.  

One formula has a suggested Statement of Composition that contains "artificially colored" at the end and I obviously want to avoid that if possible.  I tried to change it to "colored with ..." where the "..." is a list of 4 herbs.  That too was rejected.  The frustration is that the other absinthe has "colored with ..." in it's SoC and is all good.

Has anyone had success in amending a formula's suggested SoC? It appears the COLA agents expect the exact SoC as it says on the formula. I've seen labels with all sorts of marketing fluff and descriptive SoCs without "artificially colored" in it.  

Is it possible to convince the COLA people to a modified SoC as long as it's truthful and accurate? 

[rtshfd]

Eureka!  We finally passed the COLAs. I was able to elevate the review to a manager and had them talk with formulation about the requirements for the SoC. It appears COLA agents often times take the suggested SoC from the formula approval as gospel and require it to be exact when it doesn't have to be. I was able to modify the SoC to drop the artificially colored and replace it with a list of herbs we used. This is far more amicable on our end for obvious reasons.