New proposed beer labels may affect Vancouver breweries

  • 2011-01-27
Stationery printers in Richmond, B.C., may find bigger demand for their services because of a new, proposed regulation that requires beer companies in nearby Vancouver to Print warning labels on their bottles. The brainchild of Health Canada, the new, proposed beer regulations are part of the country’s larger agenda of making sure that Canadians suffering from allergies have an easier time in identifying ingredients that could be harmful to them.

Despite the benevolent intentions of the proposed health regulations, as all new regulations inevitably feature, Vancouver-area breweries may suffer from increased costs that would possibly hurt their business. According to Barry Benson, a microbrewer operating out of Vancouver, the regulations would impose on him to Print new beer labels that would caution potential drinkers that his beer includes barley or wheat. All told, the cost of printing these labels under the new, proposed regulations would hit Benson’s business with $10,000 in expenses.

His argument is that the Canadian government’s intervention in the running of private enterprises like his business amounts to a needless caution that is self-evident.
The costs for other Vancouver-area brewers could be even more severe than Benson’s. Since Benson’s microbrewery only bottles five percent of its product, his losses due to the new labeling regulations would pale in comparison with other brewers who bottle a larger percentage of their product.
If the proposed measures go through, many breweries would be able to minimise any extra costs by sourcing their labels through Print companies that are local to Richmond, B.C., and the surrounding areas.

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