In Communication No 176, TTB proposed to revise the rules on the affixing of mandatory information on distillation spirit containers in order to increase flexibility. Applicable Article 5.32(a) requires that the following be included on the “brand label”: the brand name, class and type of distilled spirits, the alcohol content and, on containers that do not conform to a bottling standard, the net content. The term “brand label” is generally defined in the current § 5.11 as the main dashboard most likely to be displayed, presented, shown or examined under normal retail conditions, as well as any other label that appears on the same side of the bottle as the main display panel. In addition, the definition states that “[t]he main dashboard appearing on a cylindrical surface shall represent 40% of the range most likely to be displayed, presented, shown or studied under normal and customary retail display conditions”. But the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, passed in 1935, created an exception to the rule. If alcoholic beverages contain more than 7% alcohol by volume, a standard measure known as ABV, TTB requires alcohol labelling. Below 7% ABV, however, alcohol labeling falls under the purview of the FDA. This means different requirements for grape wine, sparkling wine or carbonated wine, fruit wine, sake, wine cooler, cider and de-alcoholized or partially alcoholic wine. The requirements also apply to beers that are not made from malted barley, but from malted barley substitutes or hop-free such as kombucha and gluten-free beer. TTB recognizes that industry members have an interest in regulatory certainty, particularly with respect to policies that may impact the labelling of their products. Some commentators have asked TTB to complete its rule-making without several final rules. TTB weighed the advantage of waiting until it had completed the examination of all the issues raised by commentators in response to Communication 176 against the potential benefit of offering more immediate flexibility in some areas and security in others.
TTB decided to adopt final rules for a subset of the proposals contained in Communication No 176. TTB plans to consider the remaining proposals in Opinion No. 176 in subsequent federal register publications, whether by concluding further proposed amendments to Notice No. 176, announcing that such amendments will not be adopted, or initiating other rule-making procedures on specific issues for further public comment. The fact that TTB will address these issues in future regulatory documents and not in this final rule does not indicate whether the proposed amendments will ultimately be adopted. Eight comments on the FAA Act`s labelling requirements, which included 28 specific recommendations, were submitted in response to the RFI. For the sake of simplicity, TTB has published these comments in the list for this regulation. TTB is considering all relevant recommendations submitted in response to the RFI, either in the form of comments on Communication No 176 or in the form of separate Agency proposals for action. After considering the comments, TTB incorporates the proposed provisions into the existing regulations as new §§ 4.54, 5.57 and 7.43. In response to the Wine Institute`s comment, TTB includes a definition of “custom label” in each of the new sections. The definition comes from TTB`s current guidelines for custom labels (TTB G 2017-2, custom labels of 5.
September 2017) (and is an abridged version) and reads in the new regulatory text as follows: “A personalized label is an alcoholic beverage label that meets the minimum requirements of the mandatory label and is tailor-made for customers.” With regard to the clarifying wording proposed by the Wine Institute, TTB considers that the examples contained in the draft regulation have provided important context and served as a clarification purpose, and that these examples therefore remain in the final rule. Most labelling requirements for distilled spirit drinks fall under the jurisdiction of the TTB. In 2016, the results of the ABSP were published. Since then, the office has focused on working directly with violators to correct errors and introduce policies that address the most common issues in spirits labeling. Distilled spirits must be properly labelled before they can be sold on the U.S. market. This guide will help you understand TTB`s label requirements for distilled spirits. TTB received a number of comments on these proposals.
TTB received two comments against the proposed amendments to §§ 4.3 (d), 5.3 (d) and 7.3 (d), which reflect a misconception that the proposed wording would result in TTB and not the FDA enforcing the essential provisions of the FD&C Act and making decisions on whether alcoholic beverages are adulterated within the meaning of that Act. The Brewers Association and the American Distilled Spirits Association have both suggested that TTB remove this provision and leave the falsification provisions under the FD&C Act to the FDA. Both comments called on TTB to follow the 1987 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between TTB`s predecessor agency and the FDA, which remains in effect between TTB and FDA. Most spirits require an indication of alcohol by volume, which is written as “X% ALCOHOL (ALC) BY VOLUME (VOL)”. If the product contains a solid material, this statement must be “BOTTLED WITH X% ALCOHOL CONTENT by volume”. These include spirits that contain sugar crystals, such as rock and rye and certain types of cinnamon brandy. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Office (TTB) is amending some of its rules on the labelling and advertising of wine, distilled spirits and malt beverages to comply with comments it received in response to a Notice of Proposed Regulation, Notice No. 176, published on 26 November 2018. In this document, TTB complements some of the liberalization and clarification changes that have been proposed that could be implemented quickly and provide more flexibility for industry members. TTB also identifies some other proposals that are not adopted, including the proposal to define an “oak barrel” for the ageing of distilled spirit drinks, the proposal to require that ingredients be included in “intermediates” in the compositional indications of special products for distilled spirit drinks and distilled spirit drinks and wines used in special products for beverages distilled spirits; are listed in order of their supremacy.
and the proposal to adopt new strategies for the use of commodity clauses.