Malt Beverage Coalition Supports National Product Standards.

The Flavored Malt Beverage Coalition is pleased that the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) of the U.S. Treasury Department, after considering more than 16,000 comments filed in its public rulemaking, has established national standards for these beverages.

“We applaud TTB for its diligent work in analyzing an unprecedented number of public comments, and we believe the final rule is both comprehensive and fair,” said the Coalition’s administrator, Gregory Altschuh. “The category has been an overwhelming success with consumers, and TTB’s action brings a welcome degree of certainty to the business,” he added.

Under TTB’s new standard, a majority of the alcohol in FMBs under 6% alcohol by volume must come from the malt beverage base. TTB established a 12-month conversion period in recognition of the need for producers of existing products to make investments in new equipment and production processes to adjust to the new standards.

The Coalition believes the finalizing of national standards for flavored malt beverages is long overdue. The products have been in the marketplace for decades and are distributed in every state. The ruling also should lead to a resolution of concerns about the products that had been raised in several states.

“As TTB noted in the ruling, the overwhelming majority of state regulators who commented on the proposed rule, as well as members of the beer industry, consumers, Members of Congress and other elected officials, favored TTB establishing a federal standard for FMBs. Obviously, any producer of FMBs ought to welcome the adoption of the national standard in all states,” said Altschuh.

TTB also ruled that alcohol content labeling is required for these malt beverages. “All FMBC members already disclose the alcohol content of their products because it’s the right thing to do,” said Altschuh. “Alcohol content labeling enables consumers to make informed decisions about drinking,” he added.

TTB’s new “majority” or 51 percent formulation standard is consistent with many other common alcohol product classification rules, including those dealing with wines and distilled spirits. It is expected that the 12-month transition period will provide producers sufficient time to make the process and equipment changes and investments necessary to ensure that supplies of the products to consumers are uninterrupted.