Spirits Europe launches website with nutrition info

Trade association Spirits Europe has launched a new website to give consumers access to nutrition and ingredients information on all spirit drinks legally sold in the EU.

Nutrition and ingredients information on spirits can be found online at responsibledrinking.eu

The new web portal, which can be found at responsibledrinking.eu, provides information on all of the EU’s 47 spirit drinks categories.

Each one details calorie information per 100ml and per serving size, as well as the list of ingredients, the full nutrition declaration and additional information on the production process.

The site comes as part of the spirits industry’s endeavours to increase availability of nutrition and ingredients information, and deliver on the commitment submitted to the European Commission in 2018.

Ulrich Adam, director general of Spirits Europe, said: “Today’s launch of the web portal is testimony to the significant advances we have made since last year in making more and more information more easily available to consumers.

“In this specific case, we’re talking about an unprecedented level of transparency, with the information provided going well beyond the levels of what comparable legislation would mandate.

“To be sure, this is not the end of the road, but very much work in progress. We are confident of implementing our commitment fully by 2022.”

Spirits Europe also said the industry was making “good progress” on delivering other aspects of the commitment, which must be fully implemented by 2022.

The sector has pledged to make consumer information directly available from bottles via smartphone QR codes by this date. As part of its efforts, a formal cooperation with global supply chain standardisation body GS1 began on 8 February 2019.

Discussions are scheduled to continue with the European Commission tomorrow (13 March) when EU health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis will visit a distillery near Strasbourg, France.