EU: Alcohol companies invited to propose their own labelling guidelines

The drinks industry has hailed a move by the European Commission to allow alcohol companies to propose their own labelling guidelines.

The EC said on March 13 that it has decided to invite the industry to develop, within a year, "a self-regulatory proposal aiming to provide information on ingredients and nutrition of all alcoholic beverages". The EC announced the decision after adopting the findings of a report to the European Parliament and the Council that examined mandatory labelling in the drinks industry.

The move was welcomed by several major drinks companies and trade organisations. Diageo said: "The report opens the way to greater collaboration between industry and European institutions. The report also makes it clear that companies are a necessary voice to create appropriate solutions to providing clear and useful information about alcohol to people, based on their needs."

The Johnnie Walker owner highlighted its existing policy on listing nutritional information, Diageo Consumer Information Standards, which launched last year.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Carlsberg said the EC is "kicking at an open door". The brewer said that 83% of its beers worldwide already carry on-pack ingredient information.

"Beer is made from good quality, natural ingredients... [which is] why Carlsberg launched this long ago," the spokesperson said. "Beer contains fewer calories than most people think, so it is in Carlsberg's own interests to publish that information too.

"We are at full speed to voluntarily add calories as well - so we informed the commissioner on Twitter that he's kicking at an open door, at least when it comes to Carlsberg."

The UK's Wine & Spirit Trade Association said proposals should take into account the limited amount of space on bottle labels. "The WSTA has offered alcohol calorie information on its website for two years, as have a number of drinks companies and retailers who all took voluntary action to help consumers find out more about their favourite drinks," said chief executive Miles Beale. "Trying to cram more information on product labels which have limited space is a backward step. We should not be using 20th Century methods on a 21st Century issue.

"People who want to know more about what they are drinking are very capable of going online and finding out for themselves. The alcohol industry has shown they are ahead of the game on nutrition information and have for some time provided consumers with off–label calorific content of drinks."

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