I wondered
the other day why there’s so little information on wine bottles about what’s in
the wine.
It’s taken
the Treasury Department 10 years to issue interim regulations on alcohol
labeling, and unfortunately, they’re only voluntary.
In a 2003 petition to the
department, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the National
Consumers League, and other organizations asked for a mandatory label that made
calories, alcohol by volume, and servings per container easy to see.
The groups
also asked the agency to require companies to disclose ingredients in alcoholic
beverages.
Including
fat and carbohydrates on a label could imply that an alcoholic beverage is
healthy, especially when the drink's alcohol content isn't prominently labeled,
the center said.
Since
obesity rates are so high in America, calorie labeling is very important to
inform or remind consumers that alcoholic drinks aren’t "free" when
it comes to calories.
In addition,
the center thinks that a useful alcohol label would state the government's
definition of moderate drinking as no more than one drink a day for women or
two drinks a day for men.
