A federal lawsuit filed last week by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Consumer Federation of America, and the National Consumers League seeks to force alcohol beverage makers to include nutrition information—including alcohol content (ABV), calorie, and ingredient information—on their products. One food website suggested the suit was timed to coincide with President Joe Biden’s proposed development of a national food strategy, which I largely panned last week.
The groups sued the government after the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which administers alcohol taxes and oversees most alcohol labeling, failed to take action in response to a 2003 petition and subsequent communications filed over nearly two decades. CSPI has pushed for mandatory nutrition labeling on alcohol beverage containers nearly since its inception in the early 1970s. As a Treasury document published earlier this year declares, “Treasury has considered ingredient labeling requirements since at least 1972, when the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned for it.” Most recently, CSPI, CFA, and other groups wrote last year to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about what they say was a need to “improv[e] alcohol labeling to protect public health.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member