The Ouk-rra-i-nah Story by Warren Metzler Table of Contents
16. In accordance with US law
At this point in this story, I want to briefly recount the history of US government alcoholic beverage regulation. If you know this information, you might better understand some of the events in this story.
I’ve already described The Food and Drug Act of 1906; which gave the Federal government authority to regulate how alcoholic beverages are made. Then in 1938 Congress passed the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which gave the FDA authority to determine what should appear on the labels of alcoholic beverages. However, the FDA has rarely exercised that authority.
Prohibition was in effect from 1919 to 1933. And in 1935 Congress passed the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAAA), which directed the creation of the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA), and gave that organization authority to determine what appeared on alcoholic beverage labels and what were acceptable alcohol manufacturing processes. In 1940, the FAA had its name changes to Alcohol Tax Unit (ATU), and it became a division of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). Then in 1972 another name-change occurred. The new name was the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and the organization was moved out of IRS’s oversight, but remained in the Treasury Department as an autonomous division. There it stayed until the Homeland Security agency was formed in 2002; after which Firearms went to the Homeland Security department, while Alcohol and Tobacco stayed with the Treasury Department, and was renamed Alcohol, Tobacco, and Trade Branch (ATTTB).
From 1938 onwards, the FDA and the FAA worked with each other regarding alcohol beverage label contents, with occasional antagonistic interactions. Then in 1987, the current administration ruled the ATF possessed exclusive responsibility for label content, yet directed the ATF to use the FDA as a resource for expert advice.
The previously-mentioned 1935 law, the FAAA, directed the FAA to ensure alcoholic beverage labels were accurate; plus required that each such label state the type of alcohol, its level of quality (its proof as an example), and the net contents. However, that act did not require that ingredients be listed. In the ensuring years, especially since the 1970’s with the major growth in consumer advocacy groups, many consumer groups have petitioned the Federal government to require alcoholic beverage labels list the ingredients present. But each such attempt has been rebuffed as being unfeasible. Currently each label must describe the type of alcohol; the class into which the ATTTB, after testing, places that beverage —Pepper Flavored Vodka being an example—; the percentage of alcohol; the net contents; a Federal Government health warning; the origins of the beverage (in what country it was made); and the name and location (city and state) of the importer or manufacturer.
ATTTB operates a laboratory, and before you can sell an alcoholic beverage you must submit a sample to that laboratory. That lab sends the test results to the Formulation Division of ATTTB, which determines whether it is acceptable or not to sell that beverage. If that division decides you can sell that beverage, it sends you what is called a pre-import letter. That letter describes the permission to sell, plus tells you what class of alcohol must be listed on each bottle’s label.
You receive a pre-import letter when you’re importing a beverage. I’m not sure what document you receive when you’re manufacturing a beverage here in the US, but the process is the same.
Then you design the labels, after which you submit an application, a picture of each label, and a copy of the associated pre-import letter to the Label Approval division of the ATTTB. If that division approves that label, you are then free to import that beverage.