Introducing the Brewers’ Voluntary Disclosure Initiative 
 
 The Brewer’s Voluntary Disclosure Initiative is an important new approach by which participating brewers and importers will voluntarily include a serving facts statement and freshness dating on their products as well as disclose ingredients on either the label or secondary packaging via a list of ingredients, a reference to a website with the information or through a QR code. 
 
 Beer industry leaders including Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, HeinekenUSA, Constellation Brands Beer Division, North American Breweries and Craft Brew Alliance–which produce more than 81% of the volume of beer sold in the United States–have agreed to follow these guidelines. 
 
 Consumers can expect to see this information in the marketplace immediately, and participating brewers and importers are being encouraged to achieve compliance across their product lines by the end of 2020. 
 
 Our Commitment to Quality and Transparency 
 
 The Brewers’ Voluntary Disclosure Initiative is a necessary step in holding true to the Beer Institute’s reputation as an alcohol beverage industry leader in quality and transparency. This initiative provides consumers with meaningful information and will ultimately empower their decision making regarding the beverages they choose. Additionally, it will be helpful to restaurants as they comply with menu labeling requirements that go into effect in May 2017. 
 
 Labeling Specifics 
 
 The Beer Institute Brewers’ Voluntary Disclosure Initiative supports and encourages its members to adopt consistent guidelines to provide consumers more information on their products. Specifically: 
 
 To provide calorie, carbohydrate, protein, fat, and ABV (or ABW as required by state law) information on all labels in the form of a serving facts statement consistent with federal guidelines. To disclose ingredients in products on either the label or secondary packaging via a list of ingredients, a reference to a website or a QR code. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) lists ingredients that are pre-approved in manufacturing beer. For more information on these ingredients, click here. To clearly display a freshness date or date of production on all labels or primary containers. 
 
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 The four largest U.S. brewers have agreed to list calorie counts and other nutritional information on the beers they produce, an initiative that will give American beer drinkers greater clarity about what they consume. 
 
 Anheuser-Busch InBev (bud), MillerCoors, Heineken and Constellation Brands (stz-b) have all said they would follow the new guidelines that were announced by the Beer Institute. The industry’s national trade association said the companies that agreed to the initiative produce more than eight out of every ten beers sold in the U.S. 
 
 Specifically, the participating brewers and importers will be listing details about calories, carbohydrates, protein, fat and alcohol by volume on their beer products. All of this was made possible by a recent ruling by the The U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which in May 2013 allowed alcohol beverage companies to add serving facts on their labels. Previously, those firms weren’t allowed to do so. 
 
 Consumers want more information about what’s in the food and beverages they consume, and Big Beer is responding to that interest by disclosing what’s in the beers they produce. In recent years, many brewers launched websites to share some of the nutritional information as a way to convey that information—albeit in a limited capacity as it couldn’t be listed on labels until this 2013 TTB ruling. 
 
 In 2014, MillerCoors became the first to list nutritional details by adding the facts on Miller64. Today, it has the information on a dozen brands, including Blue Moon, Henry’s Hard Soda, and Coors Banquet. 
 
 A Blue Moon beer with nutritional information on the label. Advertising Art Studios Staff 
 
 “We currently have a dozen brands with this valuable consumer information and are pleased other Beer Institute members are joining our efforts,” MillerCoors spokesman Jonathan Stern said. 
 
 Anheuser-Busch (ahbif), meanwhile, says it had provided information about ingredients and nutritional content for consumers as far back as 2012 via the website http://www.tapintoyourbeer.com. 
 
 “We believe posting the ingredients online is a good step since it responds to the desires of our U.S. consumers,” AB InBev said in a statement. 
 
 Findings by Nielsen back that claim. A recent poll by the research firm found that 72% of beer drinkers think it’s important to read nutritional labels when buying food and beverages. 
 
 The spirits industry also weighed in on the news. Trade association Distilled Spirits Council applauded the move, noting there has been a significant increase in higher alcohol beers in recent years, so the additional information about alcohol by volume could help consumers be more aware of the fact that not all beers pack the same punch. 
 
 “Nearly one in four (23%) beers launched globally in 2014 had an ABV of 6.5% or higher,” Distilled Spirits Council said. It points out that U.S. Dietary Guidelines define a standard drink as 12 ounces of a 5% ABV beer. 
 
 The initiative could prove to be a headache to the nation’s over 4,000 craft brewers, however. Adding nutritional and ingredient content information to labels is an arduous process, as the TTB must sign off on each individual label, for each bottle size and every single different flavor that the brewers sell. Craft brewers often rely on rapid innovation (larger craft brewers often launch roughly 50 new styles each year). It would be a great challenge, and financial burden, to add nutritional information to styles that might not be on shelves for too long. 
 
 The Beer Institute said the participating brewers and importers are encouraged to achieve compliance across their product lines by the end of 2020. 

 Americans will soon start seeing calorie labels on many beer bottles and cans, thanks to new guidelines from the beer industry. 
 
 Some of the biggest U.S. beer companies have agreed to list the number of calories, along with other nutritional information about their products, on their labels, according to a statement from the Beer Institute, a trade association of companies. 
 
 Companies that have agreed to the new guidelines (which are voluntary) include Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, Heineken USA, Constellation Brands Beer Division, North American Breweries and Craft Brew Alliance, which together produce more than 80 percent of the beer sold in the U.S., the statement said. 
 
 Americans have long been able to check labels or menus to find out how many calories are in their Starbucks latte or can of Coke, but many alcoholic beverage manufacturers aren't required to list nutritional information on their products, due to differences in the way that alcohol products are regulated. Public health advocates have said that this is problematic, because calories in alcoholic beverages can contribute to weight gain. 
 
 "Alcohol can be a major source of calories for many Americans, and the absence of calorie labeling on cans and bottles has helped obscure that," Michael Jacobson, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy organization, said in a statement. The new industry guidelines are good news for consumers, Jacobson said. "Consumers have as much right to know what’s in their beer as in their root beer." [Here's How Much Alcohol Is OK to Drink in 19 Countries] 
 
 Calorie information could appear on some beer products "immediately," and participating companies are being encouraged to comply with the guidelines on all of their product lines by the end of 2020, the Beer Institute said. 
 
 Jacobson called for wine and liquor producers to adopt similar guidelines. 
 
 According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 12 ounces of beer has about 150 calories, a 5-ounce glass of red wine has about 125 calories, and 1.5 ounces of gin, rum, vodka, whiskey or tequila has about 100 calories. 
 
 Original article on Live Science.
– Be prepared: Drinking beer is about to get a little less fun. The four biggest brewers in the US will be listing nutritional information on their beers—which means that every time you take a swig, you'll come face to face with the exact calorie count of the beer you're ingesting. More than eight out of 10 beers sold in the country will have the labels, Fortune reports. The move comes as a result of new guidelines from the industry's national trade association, the Beer Institute, which recommends breweries become fully compliant with the voluntary guidelines by 2020. Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors, Heineken, Constellation Brands, North American Breweries, and the Craft Brew Alliance all agreed to the new guidelines. The labels will also include information about carbohydrates, protein, fat, and of course, alcohol by volume. Prior to a May 2013 ruling by the US Treasury's Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau, alcoholic beverage companies weren't actually allowed to include nutritional information on their labels, though many brewers have recently been offering the information online. And, as Live Science notes, even after that ruling, many alcoholic beverage manufacturers weren't required to list nutritional info because their products are regulated differently than other food and beverage products. It's time for that to change, says one consumer advocate: "Alcohol can be a major source of calories for many Americans, and the absence of calorie labeling on cans and bottles has helped obscure that."