Results of the FY 2009 Alcohol Beverage Sampling Program for Malt Beverages

Label Compliance

• We estimate that 90 percent (±4 percent) of all malt beverage labels in the marketplace are in compliance with Federal alcohol beverage laws and regulations.

Findings :

• Reasons for non-compliance in our sample included:

• • No approved COLA.
  • Additional labels appeared on the container (other than those included on the approved COLA).
  • Additional information appeared on the bottle or cap that did not appear on the approved COLA.

Content Compliance

• We estimate that 92 percent (±4 percent) of malt beverage products in the marketplace are in compliance with Federal alcohol beverage laws and regulations for malt beverages.

Findings:

• Reasons for non-compliance in our sample included:

• • Containers were under-filled.
  • Containers were over-filled.
  • Actual alcohol content was less than that stated on the label.
  • Actual alcohol content was more than that stated on the label.
  • Actual calories did not match what was stated on the label.

Overall Findings

• We found no significant difference in labeling and content compliance rates for domestic and imported products.
• The overall marketplace compliance rate for malt beverage labels together with the compliance rate for content is 85 percent ± 5 percent.

Results of the FY 2009 Alcohol Beverage Advertising Program

• We estimate the compliance rate for all malt beverage advertisements with Federal alcohol beverage advertising laws and regulations is 73 percent ± 4 percent.

Findings:

• Advertising on the internet and radio appear to have the most compliance issues while TV ads appear to be the most compliant.
• The top four reasons for non-compliance in our malt beverage advertising sample were:
  • Mandatory information related to the responsible advertiser was missing (37 percent of all non-compliant ads)
  • Prohibited claims regarding the alcohol content (strength claims) appeared (30 percent of all non-compliant ads)
  • Mandatory class designation information was missing (22 percent of all non-compliant ads)
  • Calorie or carbohydrate claims appeared without the required Statement of Average Analysis (12 percent of all non-compliant ads)
• Of all the non-compliant ads 18 percent were non-compliant for more than one reason.
• The most common reasons for non-compliance by media type: