The New Regulations Will Provide Industry Members with New Packaging Opportunities
By: Richard M. Blau, Chair, Nationwide Alcohol Industry Law Group
On December 29, 2020, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) published a final rule in the Federal Register that amended the agency's regulations governing the size of wine and distilled spirits containers by adding seven new standards of fill for wine and distilled spirits. In adding the new sizes, TTB elected not to remove any existing standards of fill.
The final rule’s announcement and full text are published on the Federal Register’s Website, which is accessible online at: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-28747.pdf
The new container sizes are:
Wine
355 mL
250 mL
200 mL
Distilled Spirits
1.8 L
900 mL
720 mL
700 mL
Note that distilled spirits producers may label their products with the U.S. equivalent measurement, e.g., ounces or gallons, in additional to the metric measurement.
Long advocated by foreign producers and their U.S.-based importers, these new standards of fill will provide manufacturers and bottlers greater flexibility by allowing the use of the additional container sizes, and will facilitate the movement of goods in domestic and international commerce, while also providing consumers broader purchasing options. In addition to allowing for more foreign products on U.S. shelves, domestic producers now can use these sizes to export their products to foreign markets where the sizes are long-established standards.
Title 27, Chapter 1, Subchapter A Part 4 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) governs the labeling and advertising of wine; details regarding those regulations are accessible online at:
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=33fc0c0194b58b6fe95208945b5c637a&rgn=div5&view=text&node=27:1.0.1.1.2&idno=27#sp27.1.4.h
Part 5 of the same section of the CFR governs the labeling and advertising of distilled spirits; details regarding those regulations are accessible online at:
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=33fc0c0194b58b6fe95208945b5c637a;rgn=div5;view=text;node=27:1.0.1.1.3;idno=27;cc=ecfr#sp27.1.5.e
For more information regarding the federal government’s regulation of alcohol beverages generally, or the expanded opportunities presented by TTB’s new standards of fill, please contact GrayRobinson’s Nationwide Alcohol Beverage Law Group by telephone at (866) 382-5132 or via e-mail at beveragelaw@gray-robinson.com.
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