New Poll Demonstrates Consumers Misinformed about Alcohol Content

Consumer Group Calls on Government to Make Serving Facts Label Mandatory

Release Date: November 23, 2004
Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

WASHINGTON, DC – A new consumer survey called the “Equivalency Poll” released last week confirms that American consumers need more and better information on the labels of alcoholic beverages.

The study, a telephone survey conducted by Widmeyer Research & Polling for the Center for Government Reform, found that most Americans have very limited understanding about the alcohol content of beer, wine, and distilled spirits. For example, most respondents (54 percent) did not know that there is such a thing as a “standard drink.” 

“This is just another study confirming that most consumers are confused about what is in alcoholic beverages,” said National Consumers League (NCL) President Linda Golodner. “The reason for this knowledge gap is inadequate labeling.”

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the federal agency that regulates alcohol labels, recently proposed to permit a “Serving Facts” panel on alcohol beverage labels. Proposed in response to a petition by NCL and over 50 other consumer groups and health experts, the Serving Facts panel would include information on product serving size, alcohol and calories per serving, and number of servings per container.

While the Widmeyer study confirms that the concept of “alcohol equivalency” makes sense to most Americans (78 percent), an alarming number of parents (88 percent) concluded that beer is safer than liquor.

“The belief that beer is a ‘soft’ alcohol option for their kids is hugely dangerous,” said Golodner. As former Surgeon General Novello said in 2003: “They (students) don’t realize that one can of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or one wine cooler has roughly the alcohol equivalence of one shot of vodka. This conclusion undermines and runs counter to all we know and all we have done to prevent underage drinking.”

“Because of outdated laws, the labels of alcoholic beverages are a confusing patchwork that provide consumers with little useful information and could prove dangerous,” Golodner added. Even the most basic information about alcoholic beverages, the alcohol content, is not clearly and consistently provided on the label. For example, wine and liquor labels are required to declare alcohol concentration, but beer labels are not. Given the lack of consistent information on labels, it’s not surprising that consumers are confused. 

“With mandatory labeling already the law for foods (Nutrition Facts), over-the-counter medicines (Drug Facts), and vitamins and other dietary supplements (Supplement Facts), alcoholic beverages are the only major category of consumable product that still does not have a consumer-friendly summary of important information on the label.”

“NCL believes that better labeling is badly needed, and the proposed Serving Facts panel is an excellent first step,” Golodner noted. It would enable consumers to tell how many “standard drinks” are in a particular product. A “standard drink” is defined by the federal government as the amount of beer (12 fl oz), wine (5 fl oz), or liquor (1.5 fl oz) that contains 0.6 fl oz of alcohol. “If consumers can tell from the label how many standard drinks they are consuming, they can learn their limits and avoid exceeding them. This is especially important for young adult drinkers and inexperienced drinkers,” she added.

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The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America's pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to identify, protect, represent, and advance the economic and social interests of consumers and workers. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

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