Give me 100 calories of Scotch please, I’m watching what I eat
CALORIE information is to be added to labels on bottles of whisky to inform consumers about nutrition.
The Scotch Whisky Association said the industry supports providing consumers with relevant and useful information and that there was a “commitment to providing calorie information to consumers “in a meaningful way”.
It comes as the European Commission called for alcoholic drinks to list ingredients and nutrition information, matching the requirement for non-alcoholic beverages that came into force in December 2014.
Current EU rules oblige producers of beverages with alcohol by volume of up to 1.2 per cent (ABV) to list ingredients and provide the seven nutritional values per 100ml.
Now the EU wants companies to voluntarily provide ingredients and calorie information on the labels of alcoholic beverages above 1.2 per cent ABV within a year.
The SWA said it welcomes the commission’s invitation to the alcoholic beverages industry to develop a self-regulatory proposal.
Julie Hesketh-Laird, Scotch Whisky Association acting chief executive, said: “We believe Scotch Whisky should be consumed in a responsible manner, as part of a balanced diet. It is right consumers have the information they need to make choices that fit with a healthy lifestyle, including calorie intake.
“The Scotch Whisky industry is therefore happy to provide meaningful information in a format that is simple to understand and linked with actual serving sizes, supporting consumer choice.”
Wine and Spirit Trade Association chief executive Miles Beale, likened the EU rules on listing ingredients and nutritional information on booze to using “20th century methods on a 21st century issue”.
He said: “Trying to cram more information on product labels that have limited space is a backward step. People who want to know more about what they are drinking are very capable of going online and finding out for themselves.
The WSTA has offered alcohol calorie information on its website for two years, as have a number of drinks companies and retailers who all took voluntary action to help consumers find out more about their favourite drinks.
Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU commissioner for health and food safety, said: “This report supports the right of people in the EU to be fully informed about what they drink.”