Spirits Ingredients and Nutritional Information
The trade association Spirits Europe has launched a new website giving consumers access to nutrition and spirits ingredients information on all spirit drinks legally sold in the EU. The new site provides information on all of the EU’s 47 spirit drinks categories including cognac, armagnac and calvados and can be found at www.responsibledrinking.eu . Calorie information per 100ml and per serving size for each spirit is listed. The ingredients, a full nutrition declaration (including allergens) and additional information on the production process are also included. The website comes as part of the spirits industry’s endeavours to increase availability of nutrition and ingredients information and so deliver on the commitment submitted to the European Commission in 2018. This commitment to update Spirit Drinks Regulations aims to bring the industry in line with the 2009 Lisbon Treaty and with the developments in managing geographic indicators (GIs) for food products. It also includes a pledge by the sector to make consumer information directly available from bottles via smartphone QR codes by 2022. These European directives are far more progressive than those in the US where the Alcohol & Tobacco Trade & Tax Bureau is being heavily criticised for not making the display of nutritional information, including alcohol content, mandatory in its recent modernisation of alcohol labels.