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Rules governing
alcoholic-beverage labeling suffer from jurisdictional gaps
between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the
Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade
Bureau (TTB, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms). The FDA can weigh in on alcoholic-beverage
labeling in only a very small number of cases. And, TTB has
no institutional expertise in diet or nutrition. Adding
further confusion are TTB’s inconsistent standards for beer,
wine, and hard liquor, and the abundance of products that
increasingly blur those three traditional categories of
alcoholic beverages.
“Existing labeling rules are
inconsistent, confusing, and don’t help consumers compare
beverages’ alcohol or calorie content,” said NCL President
Linda Golodner. “While wine and hard liquor list alcohol
content, beer doesn’t. And while ‘light’ beer and
low-alcohol wines list calories, regular beer, wine, and
hard liquor don’t.”
“Consumers who are trying to
maintain a healthful weight have very little information
about how many calories alcoholic beverages are contributing
to their diet,” said George Hacker, director of CSPI’s
Alcohol Policies Project. “Given our concerns over the
epidemic of overweight and obesity, it makes no sense that
such a significant source of calories goes undisclosed on
labels.”
The Alcohol Facts
label would disclose:
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Alcohol content and
standard servings. Labels would list the number of
drinks per container and the amount of alcohol in a
standard serving. That would help consumers adhere to
the Dietary Guidelines’ advice to limit alcohol
consumption.
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Calorie information.
Labels would list calories so consumers concerned about
excess weight or obesity can put alcoholic beverages in
the context of their diet.
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Allergens. Labels
would list ingredients so the seven million Americans
with food allergies can know if an alcoholic beverage
contains milk, eggs, gluten, or other allergens.
Currently, sulfites and Yellow Dye No. 5 are the only
allergens listed.
“It seems silly that a bottle
of lemonade has to list its ingredients, but a bottle of
hard lemonade doesn’t,” Hacker said. “Our proposed label
would let consumers see exactly what’s in various brands of
beers, wine, and hard liquors.”
“Consumers who are seeking to
moderate their alcohol intake have a right to know how much
alcohol is in a serving and how many servings are in a given
container,” Golodner said. The new proposed label would also
state the U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ definition of moderate
drinking as no more than one drink per day for women or two
drinks per day for men.
A recent survey commissioned
by CSPI found that 58 percent either do not know the caloric
content of beer or believe it to be lower than it is.
Eighty-nine percent support calorie labeling on alcoholic
beverages.
“Current labeling requirements
for alcoholic beverages are outdated,” according to the
petition. “They do not reflect current scientific knowledge
of consumer expectations.” Sixty-seven consumer groups and
four deans of public health schools joined NCL and CSPI on
the petition. |
