The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has proposed new rules for nutrient and alcohol content labeling on wine, beer, and spirits. Those proposed rules – open for comments 90 days from the date of publication – include a mandatory statement with details on alcohol content, calories, carbohydrates, fat, and protein per serving, as well as the placement location for labels and compliance date for suppliers.
The 164-page report should come as no surprise: In November 2022, the TTB announced it would issue new rules for nutrient, allergen, and alcohol content labeling, as well as preliminary rules for ingredient labeling on wine, beer and spirits. Comments from the listening sessions on mandatory allergen and ingredient labeling will be addressed in separate rulemaking projects, the agency announced.
The potential changes come at a time when alcohol consumption’s impact on health has been making headlines, and two weeks after U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory calling for the addition of warning labels calling out the risk of cancer to be added to alcoholic beverages.
New Proposed Alcohol Facts
Under the new title “Alcohol Facts,” the potential new mandatory statement on labels would include the following information:
- Serving size;
- Number of servings per container;
- Alcohol content as a percentage of alcohol by volume;
- Number of fluid ounces of pure ethyl alcohol per serving;
- Number of calories per serving;
- And the number, in grams per serving, of carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
“While certain alcohol beverages are unlikely to contain certain nutrients, such as fat or protein, even the absence of these components provides information and may be of interest to consumers,” read the report.
Still, the TTB is seeking comments on whether or not uncommon nutrients in alcohol should be included, such as fat and protein, as well as other nutrients, such as sodium, caffeine, or sugar, if present at a specific level, even if they do not otherwise have to be disclosed.
The term “serving” or “serving size” will also be defined as the amount of the alcohol beverage customarily consumed as a single serving, expressed in both U.S. fluid ounces, and, in parentheses, in milliliters, for wines, distilled spirits, and malt beverages, specific to each alcohol beverage category.
The agency has held that it will not propose a “standard drink” or to mandate inclusion of the consumption advice provided by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which is undergoing a controversial revision that has drawn the ire from bev-alc trade groups. But commenters were asked to answer if there is a better way of presenting the volume of alcohol content per serving, and if that would include aligning with the DGA’s “standard drink” in place of or in addition to fluid ounces of pure ethyl alcohol per serving.
An alcohol content statement, with a percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV), is already required for most bev-alc products but would be a new requirement for table wines (7-14% ABV) and most malt beverages and beers. The labeling tolerance would also be increased to one percentage point above or below the stated amount.
Physical Label Placement Required; Five-Year Compliance Timeline
The proposed rules also specified how the new labeling requirements should appear on bottles. The information will be allowed to be placed in either a panel or a linear format on the container, as long as it is set apart from other information and is placed inside a box with the title “Alcohol Facts” in bold-faced type.
While trade-groups have pushed for electronic means of delivery, such as QR codes, the agency reported that it considered, but is not proposing, to allow the proposed panel to be distributed by a link, code, or other marking on the physical label rather than requiring the full panel to appear on the physical label itself.
The agency is proposing several measures to reduce the cost and burdens of labeling changes, including a compliance date of five years from the date that a final rule is published in the Federal Register.
“According to the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] Labeling Cost Model, with a compliance period of 5 years, 100% of the labeling changes resulting from a regulatory change can be coordinated with a regularly scheduled labeling change, thus significantly reducing the estimated costs and burdens for small businesses that are subject to the proposed rule,” read the report.
The agency is also proposing to further reduce the costs by not requiring industry members to submit new applications for label approval (COLA) when the only change being made to the label is the inclusion of a new Alcohol Facts statement, or the replacement of an already approved Serving Facts statement or statement of average analysis with a new Alcohol Facts statement.
For all proposed changes, the TTB is soliciting comments until 90 days from the date of publication, which is scheduled to be January 17.
Industry Reaction
The proposed rules come after an alliance of consumer groups sued the TTB for failing to act on a 2003 petition to standardize alcohol labeling like other non-alcoholic food and beverage products. Alcoholic beverages are not required to disclose ingredient, allergen, or nutritional labeling, and the alcohol content labeling rules differ by category. Spirits are only required to disclose the alcohol content and class of spirit.
While the TTB began the process in the years after the original petition, no finalized rules were converted into legislation.
In a statement released Friday, the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. responded that “spirits suppliers provide a significant amount of information about their products to consumers” and its council director members, such as Bacardi USA and Beam Suntory, who represent the majority of all spirits sales in the country, have already committed to provide consumers with nutrient content information through either of the currently TTB-approved formats (Serving Facts panel or statement of average analysis) on all new labels by June 2024.
“We continue to believe distilled spirits companies should have flexibility in how to provide this information to consumers including the use of on-label QR codes or website references,” read the statement. “Overcrowded labels have been shown to not be helpful for consumers and do not serve the need of informing them adequately. Mandating this additional information to be placed on the label could have the opposite effect, whereby consumers simply tune out all information provided.”
The Beer Institute (BI) is reviewing the full rule to determine if anything in the proposal is out of step with a former TTB rule that formed the basis for the institute’s Voluntary Disclosure Initiative.
In an email to members, BI CEO Brian Crawford wrote that he expects “the Trump Administration will issue an Executive Order halting all regulatory initiatives issued and underway at the end of the Biden Administration,” citing recent history.
“This anticipated delay will impact both the timing of the comment period and the issuance of final regulations,” he wrote.
The Beer Institute will be working with its members to analyze both reports and inform its substantiative comments.
Go Deeper:New Year, New Labeling Rules? Proposed Changes to Alcohol Labels May Come Soon