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Do beverages really need new labeling?? |
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Written by DJ Spiess
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Thursday, 09 August 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 The TTB is proposing new legislation for beverage labeling, but are these new rules really necessary?
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau recently released Notice No. 41 for comment from the industry. This notice proposed new rules for wine, beer, and spirit labeling. Under the proposed legislation, alcohol manufacturers would be required to create new labels for their product that describes calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein information for the serving size. It would also be required to list the amount of alcohol contained in one serving of the beverage, although some states have regulations prohibiting the listing of alcohol on beer. The proposed labeling is designed to help the consumer, but does it really? And what affect will it have on the industry? New labels are required by the proposal to contain nutritional information. Usually alcoholic beverages do not contain any fat. Some beverages contain small amounts of protein, but the amounts are not likely to be high enough to make much difference. That leaves calories and carbohydrates. Beers contain carbohydrates, but wine and spirits contain almost none. All alcoholic beverages contain calories, but the caloric content is a function of the amount of alcohol in the drink. Alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram of alcohol. Simple math can give a very reasonable estimate of caloric content. Is a new label necessary to convey the number of calories?
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