Report from the Commission regarding the list of ingredients and the nutritional declaration of alcoholic beverages
Post: Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition
Date: 23 marzo 2017
Section: Seguridad Alimentaria
The European Commission has published a report regarding the mandatory labelling of the list of ingredients and the nutritional declaration of alcoholic beverages.
Regulation (EU) 169/2011, on the provision of food information to consumers, exempts beverages containing more than 1.2 % by volume of alcohol from the mandatory requirement to indicate the list of ingredients and the nutritional declaration (the energy value may be provided voluntarily).
This Regulation indicated that, by the 13 December 2014, the Commission shall produce a report concerning the application of the requirement to provide information about the ingredients and the nutritional declaration in alcoholic beverages, addressing whether alcoholic beverages should in future be covered, in particular, by the requirement to provide the information on the energy value and the reasons justifying possible exemptions. It shall also consider the need to propose a definition of drinks such as soft drinks containing alcohol (alcopops) intended specifically for young people.
Following this obligation, the Commission approved and published said report on 13 March 2017.
COMMISSION CONCLUSIONS
Taking into account the legal measures established in certain Member States and voluntary initiatives of the sector to respond to consumer expectations, the Commission considers that as a first step, current voluntary initiatives should be allowed to develop further so as to provide list of ingredients and nutrition declaration. It therefore invites the industry to respond to consumers' expectations and present within a year of adoption of this report a self-regulatory proposal that would cover the entire sector of alcoholic beverages. The Commission will assess the industry’s proposal.
Should the Commission consider the self-regulatory approach proposed by the industry as unsatisfactory, it would then launch an impact assessment to review further available options in line with Better Regulation principles. It would consider regulatory as well as non-regulatory options, in particular, regarding the provision of information on the energy value of alcoholic beverages; such assessment should carefully consider the impact of different options on the internal market, on the economic sectors concerned, on consumers' needs and the actual use of this information, as well as on international trade.