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Nutrition Labels on Alcoholic Beverages Urged

October 13, 2005
Two public interest organizations want the federal government to require the same standardized labeling information on beer, wine and distilled spirits that now appears on all other consumable products, from foods and beverages to over-the-counter drugs.

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Shape Up America! and the National Consumers League said there is no reason for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to delay giving consumers access to the most basic information about alcoholic beverages.

Based on a review of the more than 18,000 comments submitted to TTB, the organizations reported overwhelming public support for TTB to mandate a standardized “Alcohol Facts” panel providing such basic information as serving size, calories per serving, alcohol content per serving, and a “standard drink” on product labels.

Alcoholic beverages are the only major category of consumable products not required to carry label information summarizing the basic characteristics of the product.

The two public interest groups also urged TTB to act at once to implement an interim policy so that manufacturers of alcoholic beverages will be able to provide alcohol, calorie, and allergen information on their labels on a voluntary basis.

This step will allow consumers to have limited access to this information while TTB works to implement a final rule, which can take several years.

“Today, even the most basic information about alcohol beverages is not required to be provided on the labels of most alcohol beverage products,” said Linda Golodner, President of the National Consumers League.

“Just as conventional foods, dietary supplements, and nonprescription drugs are required to provide a basic minimum of information needed by consumers to make informed purchasing decisions, alcohol beverage labels should also be required to provide this information,” Golodner said.

Echoing this view is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which in detailed comments submitted to TTB told the agency that mandatory labeling of beverage alcohol products “is likely to have beneficial effects on consumers and competition.”

According to the staff of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Bureau of Economics and the Office of Policy Planning at the FTC, the disclosure of alcohol and nutrient content information on the labels of beer, wine and distilled spirits would “increase the ability of consumers to evaluate their actual alcohol, calorie, carbohydrate, and fat intake.”

Besides the public’s right to know, a review of the comments submitted by leading public health and nutrition experts document the many public health justifications for mandating an “Alcohol Facts” panel.

As stated in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, the consumption of alcoholic beverages may have beneficial effects when consumed in moderation, but can increase the risk for hypertension, liver disease and certain cancers if consumed in excess. Moreover, alcohol is a significant source of calories making it more difficult to maintain a healthy weight.

As a result, the new Dietary Guidelines recommend that people who choose to drink alcoholic beverages do so in moderation, which is defined as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks a day for men.

“Given the national obesity epidemic, it makes no sense that most alcohol beverage labels contain no information about calories,” said Dr. Barbara J. Moore, President and CEO of Shape Up America! “Better information about the alcohol and calorie content per serving and a definition of a standard drink is especially important and should be given the highest priority because of the many public health problems caused by excessive consumption of alcohol.”

To address these public health concerns, public health and nutrition authorities that sent comments to TTB urged the agency to include the following basic information on the labels of all beer, wine and distilled spirits products:
• Serving size;
• Amount of alcohol per serving;
• Number of calories per serving;
• Percent alcohol by volume;
• The definition of a “standard drink”;
• The number of standard drinks per container;
• The advice on alcohol consumption in the current edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans; and
• An ingredients declaration listing each ingredient by its common or usual name and identifying any major food allergens present in the product.

Some of the leading professional societies that submitted comments to TTB were: the American Dietetic Association, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the Society for Nutrition Education, and the Society for Women’s Health Research. TTB also heard from leading medical schools and public health officials including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

Reinforcing these views, the National Consumers League released the findings of an opinion poll providing new evidence that the general public overwhelmingly wants more information on the labels of alcoholic beverages.

Conducted for the League by Opinion Research Corporation, the poll surveyed 983 adult Americans aged 21 and over between September 22 and September 25 and found that the vast majority favor having access to the following information:
• ingredients that may cause allergic reactions (93%);
• information on the alcohol content (93%);
• the list of ingredients (90%);
• the amount of alcohol per serving (87%);
• the number of calories per serving (83%);
• the serving size (82%);
• servings per container (81%);
• carbohydrates per serving (79%);
• fat per serving (77%); and
• protein per serving (70%).

More significantly, when informed that TTB doesn’t currently permit beverage alcohol manufacturers to put information on their labels such as the alcohol content and the serving size, the poll found widespread public support for changing this policy.

Specifically, nine in ten Americans (89%) say that companies should be allowed to put information on their labels that will state how much alcohol is in a standard serving. Moreover, 86% said TTB should not be able to prevent companies from disclosing this kind of information on labels.

“I urge TTB to pay attention to the opinions expressed in this poll and take immediate action to implement a mandatory ‘Alcohol Facts’ panel on all beverage alcohol labels,” Golodner said. “NCL believes that an ‘Alcohol Facts’ panel -- including information on serving size, alcohol content, a standard drink, calories, and the Dietary Guidelines’ advice on moderate alcohol consumption -- will improve the ability of consumers to make healthy and informed purchasing and consumption decisions. We urge TTB to expedite this rulemaking.”

The proposed change in TTB policy comes at a time when half of adult Americans consume alcoholic beverages. According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, an estimated 55 percent of adults are drinkers and would benefit from easy access to standardized labeling information on beer, wine and distilled spirits products.

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