All alcoholic drinks in the EU must have the alcohol content by volume marked on the bottle and also on the price list. Various countries in the Europe have defined "units" of alcohol which are used in health advertising, but to date there is no consistency across as to what a unit should be. In the United Kingdom, a unit is defined as 10 ml of pure alcohol. Thus one litre of beer containing 5.2% ABV will have 5.2 units and half a litre will have 2.6 units. Rather typically, the British "back-room boys" have come up with a very sound definition, but Her Majesty's Government are reluctant to advertise this matter.
Maybe the US health lobby could do things better. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Al Lawrence Sent: 13 May 2009 00:27 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45063] Re: A proposal for another step towards metrication Additional information As John stated, the new bureaucracy regulating alcohol has indeed been changed to the TTB (which somehow stands for Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau). For several years they have been trying to come up with labeling requirements covering such things as serving size, nutritional content, health warnings, warnings about wheat content and so many other things that some people feel the labels will have to be bigger than the containers. That along with various other conflicting requirements from dozens of other countries has resulted in little progress. The most recent proposal issued for public comment for beer I could find was issue 74, issued in 2007. As far as I can tell (admittedly, without doing a lot of research) nothing has happened since then and the option of changing to metric labeling has never been considered in any of the proposals. Perhaps someone has found something more recent. If another proposal for public comment is (or has been) issued we should make sure we know about it. Al Lawrence _____ Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 04:19:41 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:45060] Re: A proposal for another step towards metrication To: [email protected] That 18.6 fl oz bottle translates to exactly 550 mL, so that may be a standard size (or a purposely downsized Imperial pint). Anyway, great observation. Due to foreign ownership, this would be a good time to push for metric measure in the malt beverage industry. I think BATF has changed their name, and is TTB, whatever that stands for. In the last year or two, they were proposing new requirements for nutrition labelling on wines, spirits, beer and had a notice of proposed rule making out for public comment. I suggested metric net contents for beer as well as several recommendations on the nutrition info. I don't know where the final rule stands. They have been quiet for a while. There is some background here: http://forum.gometric.us/jforum/posts/list/94.page --- On Mon, 5/11/09, Al Lawrence <[email protected]> wrote: From: Al Lawrence <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:45059] A proposal for another step towards metrication To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, May 11, 2009, 7:21 PM In 1979 and 1980 wine and distilled spirits converted to metric, and, in fact, currently only use metric unit labeling, they do not use supplemental units. This was not done as a result of pro metric groups or by fiat, it was done because the industry requested it. Beer and malt beverages did not go metric because the industry "showed no interest in doing so" according to the BATF. Wine and distilled spirits were widely exported at that time, beer was not. This is a good example showing that if industry does not actively support a metrification proposal it is unlikely anything will happen. However, things have changed. Anheuser-Busch is now owned by InBev (headquartered in Belgium), Miller brands is owned by a SABMiller, a South African company and Coors has merged with Molson (Canadian) and SABMiller also has an interest in the new company. Eight of the top ten selling brands of beer in the US are made by those companies. The other two brands in the top ten are Heineken (Dutch) and Corona (Mexican). Malt Beverages in the US are currently labeled in US units only. They are regulated by the BATF, and unlike most other products, no metric units are required on the labels and are seldom used. On a recent trip to a nearby supermarket I saw Foster's cans (Australian) labeled 25.4 fl oz, bottles of Stella Artois (Belgium) labeled 11.2 fl oz and Newcastle bottles (British) labeled 18.6 fl oz. The Foster's was obviously a 750 ml can relabeled for the US. .330 liters is a common glass size in parts of Germany and Belgium, so the Stella bottles were probably a standard European size relabeled for the US, and the Newcastle bottle was presumably a relabeled Imperial pint, although someone was a little off on the math with that one. I have also seen a lot of half liter bottles relabeled as 16.9 fl oz sold at stores that carry a lot of imported beer. If InBev and SABMiller are interested in converting beer sold in the US to metric units they would have the power to do it. Since, unlike 30 years ago, a lot of beer is now both imported and exported, the conversion would save relabeling costs in both directions. Package sizes do not have to be changed. The vast majority of beer in the US would still be sold in 12 oz cans and bottles, they would just be marked 355 ml instead. No costs would have to be incurred by changing package sizes, there would only be cost savings due to fewer label changes and by simplifying inventory control. All that is required is ruling by BAFT that malt beverages be labeled in metric, like wine and distilled spirits. If InBev, SABMiller and a few other companies are interested in this it could be done virtually overnight. What is the position of InBev and SABMiller on this? What can USMA act as a catalyst or intermediary to help accomplish this? Alan Lawrence _____ HotmailR has ever-growing storage! Don't worry about storage limits. Check <http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutori al_Storage1_052009> it out. _____ Windows LiveT: Keep your life in sync. Check it out. <http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_BR_life_in_synch_052009>
