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Alcoholic Beverage Nutritional Labeling

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is an international leader in promoting nutrition labels on foods and beverages. It has persuasively argued that consumers have a right to know the nutritional and other contents of what they eat and drink. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has even gone to court repeatedly to defend consumers’ rights to have nutritional labeling. ¹

In 2003, CSPI petitioned the US Alcohol and Tobacco and Tax Bureau (TTB) to require label information on all alcoholic beverages. It called for such things as a listing of the alcohol contents, serving size, number of calories per serving, and the ingredients (including additives) from which the beverage is made. ²

That’s a good start, but consumers also want and need information on carbohydrates, protein and fat content in what they eat and drink. However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest adamantly opposes listing such nutrients as protein and fat. CSPI argues that “because alcohol is not a food and most alcoholic beverages contain little, if any, fat or protein, those nutrients should not be listed on the new label.” ³ Unbelievably, the Center or Science in the Public Interest argues that providing nutritional information on alcoholic beverages “may even do harm.” ⁴

So CSPI insists that consumers have a right to know the nutritional content of what they eat and drink, except for alcoholic beverages! The real reason the group doesn’t want nutritional information on such beverages is that they compare so favorably to non-alcoholic beverages.

A Nutritional Comparison of Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic Beverages

	Calories	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)
Alcoholic Beverages	97.2	3.6	.00
Non-Alcoholic Beverages	124.9	29.2	.58

In reality alcoholic beverages tend to have, for example:

• moderately fewer calories than non-alcoholic beverages,
• dramatically fewer grams of carbohydrates (“carbs”), and
• no fat whatsoever, whereas most non-alcoholic beverages contain fat.

As the following list demonstrates, the actual contents of different beverages vary widely. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential that consumers have specific nutritional information on all beverage labels for easy comparison.

Calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein found in standard servings of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Alcoholic Beverages	Calories	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)
Beer (regular)	146	10.72	.000
Beer (lite)	99	5.17	.000
Distilled Spirits (rum, vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, bourbon, etc.)	97	0.00	.000
Wine (red)	125	3.5	.000
Wine (white)	120	3.5	.000
Non-Alcoholic Beverages	Calories	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)
Apple juice (unsweetened)	117	28.96	.273
Apricot juice	140	36.11	.226
Carbonated cola	155	39.77	.000
Grape juice (unsweetened)	155	37.84	.202
Grapefruit juice (unsweetened)	94	22.13	.247
Lemonade	131	34.05	.149
Milk (2% fat)	122	11.41	4.807
Orange juice (unsweetened)	112	26.84	.149
Prune juice	182	44.67	.077
Tangerine juice (unsweetened)	125	29.88	.098
Tomato juice	41	10.30	.122

Consumers want and need nutritional label information on the calories, carbs, protein and fat contained in what they eat and drink, with no exceptions.