Sir, - On every bottle, can or pack of food or drink which we buy is printed a list of the ingredients which go to make up its contents. There is, however, a glaring exception to this requirement. It is alcoholic drink.
The only information on the actual nature of the contents of a bottle or can of beer, wine or spirits is a terse statement of quantity and alcohol content as a percentage of volume. Not an iota regarding preservatives, "E" numbers, additives, frothing agents, colourants, etc.
Why is this so? Is there something - or things - to hide? If a packet of dried soup or a can of baby food were to appear in such an uninformative manner it would speedily attract the attention of the powers that be, national and European, and be withdrawn, and its producers penalised, until such time as it might make its reappearance fully and informatively labelled.
German law requires that its brewing industry strictly limits itself to four ingredients only in the production of its mainly superb beers - these being water, yeast, malt and hops; nothing more. No such requirement exists here that I know of. But there does exist a strong suspicion among imbibers that quite a lot more than these four basic ingredients enters into the production of our native and imported beers - to say nothing of wines.
Why the coyness on the part of the producers of these vastly popular beverages? Is it because they fear to shock their customers? Or is it that their products bring in such great sums of money in taxes and excise duties that they are allowed to purvey their wares in such a secretive and uninformative manner? It's very curious indeed. - Yours, etc., David Grant,
Mount Pleasant, Waterford.