The U.S. Amends Labelling Regulations for Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages

On April 02, 2020, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the United States of America has published the following regulation in the Federal Register: "Modernization of the Labeling and Advertising Regulations for Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages."

In this document, the TTB is intentioned to apply proposed changes that could be implemented quickly regarding the proposed rulemaking, Notice No. 176, published on November 26, 2018 on "regulations governing the labeling and advertising of wine, distilled spirits, and malt beverages."

Among others, the included measures are:

• Implementing an increase (to plus or minus 0.3 percentage points) in the tolerance applicable to the alcohol content statements on distilled spirits labels.
• Removing the current prohibition against: age statements on several classes and types of distilled spirits, and use of the term ‘‘strong’’ and other indications of alcohol strength on malt beverage labels.
• Removing a limitation on the way distilled spirits producers may count the distillations when making optional ‘‘multiple distillation’’ claims on their labels.

The final rule is applicable from May 4th, 2020.

Check the full text of the final rule here or in our Food Law Library.