Nutrition Labels May Be Coming on Alcoholic Beverages, Could Mean Misleading Information

For those that are especially health conscious, food producers will now have the option to put nutrition labels on various beverages, including alcoholic drinks. However, some organizations worry this may be misleading for consumers.

According to the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), this news came after a ruling made last week when the TTB made the decision to allow companies that sell wine, beer and spirits to use nutrition labels on a voluntary basis (or the decision not to, if they so choose). Various labels that become approved will include serving size information and calorie, protein and fat content per individual serving.

However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest  is concerned that this may give alcohol companies the opportunity to misrepresent the amount of calories in their products.

In 2003, a petition to the Treasury Department, CSPI, the National Consumers League, and other organizations asked for a mandatory label that made calories, alcohol by volume and servings per container available to see via the label, according to the organization's website. It was also asked that the agency list each ingredient.

The organization notes the following:

"Including fat and carbohydrates on a label could imply that an alcoholic beverage is positively healthful, especially when the drink's alcohol content isn't prominently labeled. In this era of obesity, calorie labeling is critically important to inform or remind consumers that alcoholic drinks are not "free" when it comes to calories. Finally, a really useful alcohol label would state the government's definition of moderate drinking as no more than one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men."

As health officials and the public alike note that alcohol's main selling point has never been it's dietary benefits or caloric intake, various alcohol companies have noted that labeling products may put them at a disadvantage. And, as noted by various wine companies, for aesthetic reasons, nutrition labels would also put organizations at a disadvantage when selling and advertising the look for certain products.

As TTB deliberates over permanent labeling guidelines, it's important to note that the new policy is only a temporary measure as new consumer groups push to make nutrition lables a mantatory proposal that was originally considered in 2007, but never finalized.