Brussels, 18.10.17 - In March, the European Commission called on alcohol producers to present, within 12 months, a sector-wide proposal on the labelling of ingredients and nutrients for all alcoholic beverages. However, the Commission did not adopt any guidelines as to how the labelling should be implemented. This puts a huge burden on producers. Is it at all possible to lump together beer, wine and spirits? Are producers that are not organized in one of the big European association even aware of the imposed self-regulation? Would SMEs be able to handle the costs that might be involved?
The members of the EPP group, Renate Sommer and Herbert Dorfmann organized a hearing in the European Parliament to bring together representatives from the three alcohol sectors, the EU-Commission and MEPs and to discuss these questions.

„We wanted to get a picture of the progress made by producers in the development of a common labelling approach. It was of particular importance to us to also hear the view of representatives of SMEs, as they are not represented at the negotiating table in Brussels. They are in danger of being overwhelmed by the new technical and financial proivisons of a self-regulation. After all, a mandatory nutrition labelling will force them to conduct costly lab analysis, to print new labels and to buy new maschines.

The discussion has shown, that beer, wine and spirits cannot be lumped together. A common nutrition labelling per 100ml does not make sense for spirit drinks, which are consumed in much smaller units. However, even the labelling per consumption unit is problematic, as portion sizes vary nationally and event regionally. For small wine growers the exact determination of the calorie content is only possible via a lab analysis as it may vary from bottle to bottle. And how should wine growers produce an individual label for every single bottle? These are only some of the challenges that need to be tackled.

We need a pragmatic approach, that provides the necessary consumer information while allowing producers to survive. The EU-Commission needs to back away from the idea that all the information has to be labelled on the bottle. Specific provisions, such as off-label-information or practical tolerances for the nutrition declaration on the basis of the alcohol content, are inevitable. And we have to be considerate of the thousands of craft businesses, who market their products only regionally. This is also in the interest of consumers.“

Renate Sommer, MEP is Parliament rapporteur on the underlying Regulation on Food Information to Consumers and President of the EP Beer Club

Herbert Dorfmann, MEP, is President of the Intergroup on „Wine, Spirits and Quality Foodstuffs“