Brussels, 16/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Is putting the calorie content on the labels of alcoholic drinks a good way of reducing the consumption of alcohol? The MEPs on the European Parliament's public health and food safety (ENVI) committee argued that it did when on 1 April they adopted a report by Glenis Willmott on alcohol abuse, a report that now needs to be adopted by the plenary (see EUROPE 11287).
On Wednesday 15 April, Belgian socialist MEP Marc Tarabella urged the European Commission to legislate on the labelling of alcoholic drinks. He said that the inhabitants of Europe were the greatest consumers of alcohol in the world, but nobody knows how many calories are in their drink. He strongly urged the Commission to unveil draft legislation, which he said should have been done in 2014.
The MEPs on the ENVI committee want the list of ingredients to feature on labels for alcoholic drinks, along with the drink's calorie content. A recent study shows that putting the calories content would be an effective way of reducing alcohol consumption among consumers. Marc Tarabella said that in 2011, alcoholic drinks were removed from the draft legislation on food labelling in order to explore various options for the labels of this type of product, but four years have gone by and it was time to put an end to this special regime. (Isabelle Lamberty)