Food, nonalcoholic beverages, drugs, and even dietary supplements all provide basic consumer facts about the product on the label. Alcohol beverages are the only major category of consumable product that is forbidden by the government from disclosing this kind of helpful information. I believe it is time for the government to allow those beverage alcohol companies that want to modernize their product labels to do so without any more hesitation. Public interests are served when consumers get more information of this nature:

Recent studies show consumers are in favor of more information on beverage alcohol labels:

74% of drinkers read nutritional information on packaged food at least some of the time.

66% claim nutritional information has at least some impact on what they decide to purchase.

A significant 67.5% majority believe that nutritional information should be provided on alcohol beverage packages

There is nothing misleading or deceptive about disclosing the amount of alcohol a serving of beverage alcohol contains. In fact, nothing can be more important than placing the amount of alcohol per serving on the very product containers that the consumer will hold and examine, purchase and consume. That is why two former Secretaries of Health and Human Services (Joseph Califano and Luis Sullivan) and two former Surgeons General (Julius Richmond and David Satcher) have called for voluntary industry labeling.

Label modernization has been under review by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau at the U.S. Department of Treasury for nearly three years. Over one hundred health, consumer, law enforcement, education and governmental entities support providing this type of information on alcohol labels. These include the American Dietetic Association, Shape Up America, the National Consumers League, the American Medical Association, the National Taxpayers Union and the Federal Trade Commission.

The time for action is long overdue.