US Goverment’s Low Carb Ruling

The US government issued their ruling on the caloric and
carbohydrate verbiage that can be used in the labeling and
advertising of wine and other spirits. As stated in the ruling,
“Truthful and specific statements about calorie and carbohydrate
content in the labeling and advertising of wine, distilled
spirits, and malt beverages are authorized”.

What This Authorization Means In short, it means that
wine producers will have new marketing opportunities to pursue.
Many wine manufacturers are beginning to market their
low-carbohydrate products as healthy and fitting perfectly into
a low carb diet.

As example, Brown-Forman recently jumped on the low-carb
bandwagon with two new and innovative products: One.6 Chardonnay
and One.9 Merlot. They are branding and communicating the names
One.6 and One.9 to highlight the respective carb count of the
wines. One.9 Merlot has 1.9 carbs and One.6 Chardonnay has 1.6
carbs per five-ounce glass.

What Caused It? A handful of companies had already
started making low carbohydrate claims in advertisements and
labels. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau was
concerned about possible advertising misrepresentation and
implying that the consumption of “low-carbohydrate” wines or
spirits may play a healthy role in a weight maintenance or
weight reduction plan.

The government’s bureau is in the process of taking a
comprehensive review of all aspects of wine and labeling and
advertising. One of the rulemaking determinations will be on the
possible mandatory or voluntary use of nutritional information
on wine labels. However, rather than waiting the completion of
the more comprehensive review, the bureau moved forward with
Ruling 2004-1.

Low-Carb Rules The government’s low-carb criteria from
the ruling states the wine must have lower than 7 grams in a 5oz
serving. Most Champagnes and dry wines will easily make that
classification. In the situation where wines come with slightly
higher carbohydrate content (more than 7 grams), the government
approved the use of the terms “reduced carbohydrate” and “lower
carbohydrate” (as well as similar terms). These can be used on
labels or advertising as long as the term is used as part of a
statement that specifies the number of carbohydrates per serving
size, and compares that number with the number of carbohydrates
in another specified product made by that producer.

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