Your Alcoholic Beverages Might Soon Have Nutritional Labels

There's a big change coming for your wine, beer, and spirits bottles: soon, they might have nutritional labels like any other beverage. 

That's the newest update from the Treasury Department and the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau (or TTB), reports the Associated Press. These new changes, which would allow producers to include serving sizes, calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat per serving on labels, have been in the works since 2007, but the TTB never finalized those rules. "This is actually bringing alcoholic beverages into the modern era," said one executive vice president at Diageo, Guy Smith, to the Associated Press. 

The newest ruling is a big win for both alcoholic beverage companies, who want to promote the nutritional value of their drinks (such as lower calorie count), and for consumer advocacy groups, who want more transparency from alcoholic beverage companies. However, it looks as though many producers won't choose to include these labels on their products — and it could cause some more confusion in the wacky world of alcoholic labeling. The AP notes that wine companies are likely to not use new labels, as well as beer companies. And consumer groups, like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, worry that beverage companies will likely use the new regulations to make their drinks appear more healthy than they actually are. 

The AP says this is a first step as the TTB decides on more final rules, as the ruling is just temporary.