5 things to know about calorie labels for alcoholic drinks on menus - low calorie dishes at mexican restaurant

WASHINGTON -
Want to know how many calories are in the alcoholic drinks you will order?
You can find the answer by reading the menu.
Five things the Food and Drug Administration's new menu labeling rules need to know, which requires chain restaurants with 20 or more branches to list calorie content in alcoholic beverages, there are other foods and drinks on the menu before the next NovemberYOU, and the FDA rules apply to drinks listed on the menu, but not to drinks ordered at the bar.
The FDA says it is difficult to try labeling calories in mixed drinks in different restaurants.
Individual calorie content will not be listed on the wine list.
The FDA allows restaurants to estimate calories and range.
This means that the menu needs to list the average calorie count in a glass of red wine or white wine, but do not have to list the calories by brand unless they wish.
The same is true of beer and spirits.
The first step public health advocates say the new rules for labeling alcohol menus are the first step to be welcomed.
Margo Wootan of the public interest Science Center said that as people get used to alcohol, they will want more nutrition labels.
"Most of the time, when people have a drink, they have absolutely no idea what its heat effects are," Wootan said . ".
The wine industry and the Association of handmade brewers, representing many smaller companies, said that they were pleased that the rules allowed to estimate the number of calories, so that companies did not have to pay for the analysis of the nutritional components of the product --
At least for now.
Paul Gatza, representing the brewery association of craft breweries, said that if some restaurants decide to list the calories of individual beers, these regulations "may have a slight chilling effect on small breweries"
If added information helps consumers feel more connected to brands, these rules may also have an advantage, Gatza said.
What about bottles and cans?
For years, most alcohol companies have tried to delay mandatory bottles and can put nutrition labels when public health advocates struggle for them.
The rules proposed by the Ministry of Finance's tobacco and alcohol trade and tax bureau in 2007 will make these labels mandatory.
But they never made it to the finals.
Last year, the bureau said for the first time that beer, wine and spirits companies could use labels, including the portion weight of each beer, the portion weight of each container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat.
These labels are voluntary and are likely to be used by liquor companies that promote low-calorie and low-carb compounds in their products.
By volume, the content on the wine packaging label containing 14% or more alcohol must list the alcohol content.
By volume, wine with 7 to 14 cents of alcohol can list the alcohol content or put a "light" or "table" wine on the label.
"Light" beer must list calories and carbohydrate content.
The alcohol content must be listed by volume, or a measure of the intensity of the alcohol-proof.
Manufacturers of wine, beer and wine do not have to list the ingredients, but must list substances that people may be sensitive to, such as sulfuric acid, certain food pigments, and ASBA sweet.