U.S. Sued Over Alcohol Nutritional Disclosure

Oct. 7, 2022

Lawsuit seeks to revive years-old petition.

Consumer advocacy groups are suing to make the federal government require nutritional information on alcoholic beverages.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other organizations filed a lawsuit Oct. 3 against the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. federal court. It seeks to make Treasury require, through its Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, alcoholic beverage bottlers to disclose nutritional information on a label panel, similarly to what is required for conventional food and beverage products.

Nutritional disclosure for alcoholic beverages has been debated for years. CSPI and some of the other plaintiffs petitioned Treasury for a disclosure rule in 2003, and comments were taken afterward, but no finalized rule emerged. The lawsuit seeks to force Treasury to act on that petition within 60 days.

“Enhanced transparency in alcohol labeling is a commonsense step that can help address the health and safety concerns related to the consumption of alcohol and would allow consumers to make informed choices about the alcoholic products they purchase,” the complaint states.

About the Author

Pan Demetrakakes | Senior Editor

Pan has written about the food and beverage industry for more than 25 years. His areas of coverage have included formulations, processing, packaging, marketing and retailing. Pan worked for Food Processing Magazine for six years in the 1990s, where he was operations editor (his current role), touring dozens of food plants of every description. He has also worked for Packaging and Food & Beverage Packaging magazines, the latter as chief editor, during which he won three ASBPE awards. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in communications.