Alcohol bottles must display the composition and nutritional information of the drink, the European Commission said.
During all these years, they have escaped it. While soda or fruit juice bottles must mention the composition of the drinks they contain, alcohol bottles have been an exception for all these years. For mysterious reasons, they were not subject to this regulation.
But Europe signs the end of this laxity granted to the alcohol industry. The European Commission has just adopted a report devoted to the issue. “In view of the conclusions of its report, the Commission has decided to invite the alcoholic beverages sector to draw up within one year a self-regulatory proposal to generalize the mention of ingredients and nutritional information on all alcoholic beverages. “, Can we read in a press release.
“Fully informed”
“This report supports the right of people in the European Union to be fully informed about what they drink. What is more, it does not find any objective reasons justifying the absence of the list of ingredients and nutritional information on alcoholic beverages. He underlines the expansion of voluntary initiatives which is already underway in this sector. “
The EU Food Information Regulation (No 1169/2011), which has been applicable since December 2014, establishes rules for the mention of the list of ingredients and a nutrition declaration. These rules are mandatory for all foodstuffs, including alcoholic beverages. Beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol by volume are however exempt.
The sector therefore has one year to prepare a regulatory proposal. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess the proposal. If it considers that the self-regulation proposed by the manufacturers is not satisfactory, it will launch an impact assessment to examine the other possible options, in accordance with the principles of “better regulation”.
Pint of beer and chocolate
This new display will allow consumers to identify potentially toxic substances in alcoholic beverages (coloring agents, etc.), but also to learn more about the caloric intake of these beverages, which are particularly rich for some of them.
However, this represents a real public health issue… Alcohol is indeed a factor in obesity. A pint of beer contains 180 calories, which is equivalent to a slice of chocolate cake, and about as much as a tall glass of white wine (185 calories). These drinks are much more caloric than a double vodka tonic (143 calories, the equivalent of a donut) but much less than a pina colada: this cocktail made from rum and fruit juice contains 644 calories, it that is, as much as a Big Mac!
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