Diageo has announced they will voluntarily put nutritional labels on their products including Guinness. Now it’s up to those drinking the black stuff to decide if “Guinness is good for you.”
The labels will be similar to those found on packaged food. According to Diageo (DEO) CEO Ivan Menezes this is the first time this had been introduced by a company voluntarily. As well as the iconic Guinness the company owns Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, and several other brands of beer and wine. It sells in 180 countries around the world.
According to MyFitnessPal this is the breakdown of a US pint of Guinness:
This isn’t the only good press Guinness got this week. On St. Patrick’s Day Prince William was seen raising a glass to the troops, alongside his wife Duchess Catherine (Kate Middleton) following the traditional presentation of shamrok to the members of the Irish Guards. Well, if it’s good enough for royalty and healthy! – it’s a win-win.
In a statement, with relation to the nutritional labels, Menezes said, "Currently, there is no obligation to provide such information in markets worldwide, but we know that consumers are increasingly discerning about what’s in their glass. We want to provide alcohol and nutrition information that consumers can quickly understand, instead of expecting them to do the math."
Diageo spokeswoman Zsoka McDonald said previously the company was not allowed to print such information on labels. Now the labels will show how much alcohol is contained in any given serving size, as opposed to the alcohol per 100 milliliters, which is how standard nutrition labels display the information in Europe.
In the United States alcohol is regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, not the Food and Drug Administration. This means alcohol is not subject to the same nutrition labeling requirements as most foods.
Diageo is working with the European Union to come up with a standard for labeling alcohol and nutrition content.
Ian Duncan, a Scottish member of the European Parliament said, “Providing both the nutrition and alcohol content of alcohol drinks, in an easy to understand 'per serving' format, is a major improvement on the confusing current system, where there are different measurements of alcohol units across the EU.”
Diageo will provide the information on its website DRINKiQ.com and/or on-pack in a majority of Diageo's markets subject to local regulatory approval, as soon as practicable.
Here are some iconic Guinness adverts including “Guinness is Good for You”:
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