STZ Constellation Brands Inc

The biggest brewers in the U.S. said Tuesday they plan to add nutrition labels to beers like Heineken and Corona so that consumers know the amount of calories, carbohydrates and alcohol in each brew.

The voluntary step toward transparency was met by criticism from consumer advocates, who called on the industry to also include ingredient information on bottles and cans. Brewers, including Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC, said they would provide that information online or on secondary packaging like a cardboard six-pack container.

"If the industry takes pride in its ingredients it should list them on labels and not simply on the Web," said Michael Jacobson, president of Center for Science in the Public Interest. He said in a statement that many brewers artificially color, flavor, sweeten and preserve products.

Beer Institute President Jim McGreevy said brewers "welcome that debate" over adding ingredients to products but are "very proud" of their plan to provide nutritional information to consumers.

The nutrition labels will be added by 2020 to all beers made by AB InBev, MillerCoors, Heinken NV, Constellation Brands Inc., Craft Brew Alliance Inc., which makes Kona Longboard Island Lager, and North American Breweries, which makes Labatt Blue. The brewers account for more than 80% of U.S. beer volume, according to the Beer Institute, an industry lobbying group.

The fast-growing craft beer industry, which represents more than 10% of U.S. volume, and Pabst Blue Ribbon, which has about 2.5% market share, didn't commit to adding the labels.

A number of the nation's most popular beers already feature nutritional information, including Bud Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite and Coors Light. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates alcohol labels, began allowing brewers to list serving facts on beers in 2013.

The decision to expand that list to include beers like Busch and Tecate comes amid rising consumer interest in nutrition information and efforts by the federal government to require food and beverage companies to list added sugars on product labels. It also precedes a Food and Drug Administration plan to require restaurants with at least 20 locations to display calorie information for beer after 2017.

The beer industry has faced pressure to be more transparent with nutritional information. Diageo PLC, the world's largest liquor company, last year said it would begin offering calorie and nutrition information for brands like Crown Royal Canadian whisky and Smirnoff vodka. It sought to add the labels to show that liquor has the same alcohol content as beer on a per serving basis, a Diageo spokeswoman said.

Distillers have used that argument about alcohol content to cut into brewers' share of U.S. alcohol sales for more than a decade. Since 2000, distillers share of sales has risen to 35% from 29% while brewer's share has fallen to 48% from 56%, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents the liquor industry.

Beer nutrition labels could pose a challenge to the fast-growing craft beer industry, which hasn't committed to adding labels. Many of those brewers are small operators that would struggle to cover lab costs to get nutritional information, said Paul Gatza, president of the Brewers Association, which represents craft beer companies.

If nutrition labels influence consumer purchase decisions or the federal government begins requiring them, Mr. Gatza said small brewers could choose to reduce the number of brands they sell because of lab-testing costs. "In theory, there would be less choice for beer drinkers," he said.

Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 12, 2016 16:05 ET (20:05 GMT)

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