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In September, The Brewers of Europe and its members signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and committed to labelling ingredients and energy values on all beer bottles and cans in the EU by 2022. The targets were voluntarily agreed with the European Commission and adopted by the General Assembly of The Brewers of Europe in June. There were thirty-seven initial signatories, including 25 national brewers’ associations.
The signing ceremony was attended by The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis who said ‘I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you for your commitments to alcohol labelling. And I also want to encourage you to continue being a pioneer around this issue in the wider alcohol sector. Consumers have a right to know more’.
The purpose of the MoU is that companies take public responsibility for the declaration of ingredients and energy information on the labels of their products, whilst trade associations support these efforts by setting local sectoral ambitions and collective reporting.
The MoU is open to companies and associations from all alcoholic beverage sectors, provided that the signatory fully endorses the MoU and its commitment to the on-pack labelling of both ingredients and energy values. The ultimate objective is that consumers receive understandable, recognisable, comparable and accurate information for all alcoholic beverages.
In the last four years brewers have been voluntarily rolling out ingredients and energy labelling in full accordance with Regulation (EU) 1169/20111, setting ambitious targets. An implementation report ‘Proud to be Clear’ published in September shows that 60% of beer labelling includes calorie information, whilst 85% carry an ingredients list. With the signing by key countries of the MoU, those numbers will grow significantly in the next year.
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