The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #70388

Didra Brown Taylor, PhD, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1651 East 120th Street, Building E, Los Angeles, CA 90059, 323/357-3454, xdidrax@aol.com, Elizabeth D. Waiters, PhD, Prevention Research Center, 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 900, Berkeley, CA 94704, and Ricky N. Bluthenthal, PhD, Health Program and DPRC, RAND, 1700 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407.

The ability to make accurate distinctions between alcohol beverage types allows consumers to make informed health choices and allows alcohol scientists to accurately measure ethanol consumption. Inconsistent manufacturing, labeling, product packaging, advertising, and state and federal regulatory practices, however, obfuscate distinctions between alcohol beverage types, particularly in differences between beer, malt liquor, fortified wines, and “malternatives” such as wine coolers and hard ciders. Many brands of “wine coolers,” for example, while having the look and appeal of wine products, are in fact malt beverages that contain no wine, are brewed like beer as opposed to fermented like wine, and have the alcohol content of regular beer. These types of products can mislead the average consumer who may equate wine coolers with wine products. A female consumer of wine coolers who believes in the purported health benefits of wine and the permissibility of having a daily glass of wine while pregnant, for example, would in fact be consuming a malt beverage which could endanger her pregnancy or contribute to fetal alcohol syndrome. This paper discusses the various criteria upon which alcohol beverages are defined, describes how beverage-specific classifications are misused by the alcohol industry and misunderstood by consumers, and examines the consequences of beverage-specific misclassifications on under- and over-estimates of ethanol consumption.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to
• identify and evaluate the factors that comprise alcohol beverage-specific classifications;
• make clear distinctions between alcohol beverage types; and
• understand the complications and consequences of alcohol beverage-type misclassifications.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.