Al: On beer, TTB requires net contents in Customary. Metric is allowed, but
only as supplemental. It is the reverse of wine and spirits. TTB swings both
ways.
I believe TTB did work with industry rather than just declare wine and spirits
metric, beer Customary, but I can't find any details on why the split. FPLA
does not apply because beer is regulated by a different Federal agency. FPLA
only applies to products regulated by FDA or FTC. (Even meat in standard
weight packages is an exception because it is regulated by USDA.) Either net
contents should always be ruled by a single agency or different agencies MUST
coordinate their net contents standards.
From: Al Lawrence <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2015 11:31 AM
Subject: [USMA:54828] RE: [Rep: Al Lawrence] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than
We Think
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the idea of metric labeling and sizing in the drink industry. There has been
some recent discussion here about this and what can USMA do about it. I spent
some time in some markets recently with the objective of trying to figure out
what could actually be done. There seems to be two different situations, one
for beer, and one for everything else. From what I can see there is probably
very little we can do about soft drinks, bottled water, juices, etc, but
hopefully someone else has some ideas. There may be something the USMA can do
about beer.
Looking at soft drinks on the grocery market shelves I saw product in 2.5
liter, 2 liter, 1.25 liter, 1 liter, half liter, 20 oz, 12 oz and 7.5 oz.
containers. The 20 oz container is actually the same as the 600 ml container,
a popular size sold in many parts of the world, simply re-labeled (and with a
small adjustment on the filling machine), so except for the ubiquitous 12 oz
containers and a few small 7.5 oz cans the soft drink industry has essentially
already gone to metric containers.
Most bottled water is already sold in metric containers as well. I saw 3 liter
bottles, 1.5 liter one liter, half liter, 700ml, 600 ml and 500 ml. The only US
packaging I saw was 20 oz, which is also 600 ml, 12 oz and gallon containers.
It appears bottled water is also already almost entirely in metric packaging.
I was also surprised that orange juice containers are almost all metric. The
most common size by far was 1.75 liters. There were also 15.2 oz / 450 ml
containers, 11.5 oz / 340 ml containers, 10.2 oz /300 ml, an inexplicable 89 oz
/ 263 ml container, 3 liter containers and some half gallon and gallon cartons
Other juice are a mixed bag and milk was essentially customary. Most olive
oils are in metric containers, mouthwashes and shampoo containers are about
40% metric and 40% customary with a surprising number of containers which were
not round in any units. Detergents, bleaches and sports drinks are mostly
customary.
The point is that American manufacturers seem to have no problem using metric
containers. They do not need to be persuaded. If the labeling laws were
changed American companies would probably finish converting liquid containers
fairly quickly. That would certainly be true for soft drinks, juices and
bottled water.
It does not appear business is preventing metric labeling, it is the
government, and I am not sure there is much the USMA can do about that. One
possibility would be to maintain some kind of database showing how much or what
percentage of liquid product in the grocery stores is already in metric
containers. I think that would surprise a lot of people and the data could be
presented to the appropriate government agencies or used by anyone promoting
"metric only" or "metric optional" labeling.
Beer containers are a different story. Most did not show any metric units on
the label at all. Almost all were customary only, even the imported beers.
Apparently the UPLR and FPLA rules do not apply to beer. It seems the TTB has
it own set of rules. Presumably, that means the TTB can decide to allow a
metric only option on their own, or, if they decide to, they could even require
mandatory labeling in metric units only with no customary allowed, as is the
case with wine and spirits. Does anyone know if this is true or how to find
out?
The sizes in fluid ounces were 8, 11.2 (330 ml), 12, 16.9 (500 ml), 18.6 for
Newcastle (550 ml), 22 for Guinness (650 ml), 24, 24.5 for Fosters (725 ml),
25, 32, and 40 fluid ounces. The only beers using metric packaging were
foreign beers, but even so, the majority of foreign beers were in customary
packaging. The brewing industry is far behind when in comes to metric
packaging.
All of the top ten most popular beers in the US are now owned by foreign
companies. Anheuser-Busch is now owned by InBev (headquartered in Belgium),
Miller brands 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. The other two brands are Heineken (Dutch) and Corona (Mexican).
Since the top ten beer brands are owed by international companies, it would
seem like they would be in favor of metric only.
What is stopping them? Are TTB regulations preventing them for doing it? Will
the TTB change it if they ask as a united front? Can the USMA help co-ordinate
this effort? Do they want do want to convert in the first place? Perhaps some
brewers are reluctant to publicly come out in favor of metric because of PR
conerns. If that is the case, can the USMA provide them with political cover by
presenting their request to the TTB for them?
First we need to find if the big brewers want to go to metric labeling. I
wrote to several of them a few years ago and got no response at all other than
a couple of form letters. Perhaps the USMA can get a better response and find
out what their position on metric labeling is.
Al Lawrence
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [USMA:54822] RE: [Rep: Al Lawrence] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than
> We Think
> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 13:58:46 +0000
>
> If anything lets go after the drink industry in general. It's a mess now,
> consistent drink sizes would be better for everyone.
>
> Howard R. Ressel
> Project Design Engineer
>
> New York State Department of Transportation
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
> [email protected]
> Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 11:34 PM
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:54818] [Rep: Al Lawrence] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than We
> Think
>
> Al-- Your suggestion for the USMA to push metric with businesses more than
> government was well argued and is the kind of new direction that I think our
> movement needs. We have limited resources, and if could get one other major
> industry to go metric, that would be a significant accomplishment.
> Beer and candy bars would be good possibilities to work with, as you have
> argued. --Martin Morrison
>
