Press releases

Consumer Information: European Producers Successfully Deliver on Energy On-Pack Target as Part of Multiannual Labelling Commitment

Sector also reports about rapid progress in developing digital consumer information tools

Brussels, 5 May 2021 – Europe’s producers of spirit drinks have successfully delivered on a 1^st milestone commitment to provide a growing share of spirits sold in the EU with energy information on the label. According to a Progress Report released today by trade association spiritsEUROPE, the sector succeeded in ensuring that, by 31 December 2020, around 1 in 4 bottles already featured such information, a share that is set to rise to 50% and 66% by the end of 2021 and 2022 respectively. In parallel, the sector also reported about rapid progress in developing bespoke digital consumer information tools.

The targets are part of a multiannual voluntary agreement – the so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Consumer Information – that was facilitated by the European Commission in 2019. The MoU provides clear guidance on how nutrition information and ingredient listings should be made available to consumers on spirit drinks, given they are not mandatory under current EU rules.

Commenting on the progress, Christian Porta, President of spiritsEUROPE said: “Despite the difficult market environment and tremendous challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, we are proud to report that the sector is on track in delivering on our labelling commitments and providing European consumers with the information they are looking for.”

“Since 2019, more and more trade associations have signed up to the MoU, and more and more producers have started to roll out labels in line with its commitments. This shows that the approach is working,” Porta added.

Rapid progress has also been achieved in key initiatives to provide digital consumer information. The spirits sector has teamed up with the wine sector to invest into the development of a bespoke Platform which will generate product-specific e-labels that will be directly accessible from a bottle through the scan of a QR code. The Platform will be piloted later this year for full operational deployment thereafter.

ENDSNote to editors

For more information, please contact: Ulrich Adam, Director General of spiritsEUROPE -  Tel: +32 477 63 67 adam@spirits.eu

• spiritsEUROPE is the representative body for the spirits industry at European level comprising 31 associations and 10 international companies: www.spirits.eu.
• Click here for the 1^st year report on the Memorandum of Understanding
• Click here for the full Memorandum of Understanding