#THEBEERBREWERS RESPOND TO CALL FOR #INGREDIENTLIST by Matt Wilson.

Thursday was a revealing day in the world of business.

Perhaps the most publicized story of a company opening up its secrets to the world was Tesla Motors’ decision to make all its patents public, but another company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, also opened up in a way it hasn’t done before.

The new website tapintoyourbeer.com offers something that beer labels traditionally don’t have: nutritional information. Consumers can see how much alcohol, fat, and protein, and how many carbohydrates and calories (labeled “energy”) Anheuser-Busch InBev’s dozens of different beers contain.

Ingredients are also listed, but it’s not standardized the way food labels are. There’s a listing for what grains the different beers have, and then some ingredients are given in a description of each beer. (Budweiser and Bud Light do have full ingredient lists.)

Anheuser-Busch didn’t create the site without a little prompting. A blogger who calls herself “Food Babe,” whose name is Vani Hari, started a petition to end the phenomenon of “#MysteryBeer,” urging Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors to post ingredients online. As of Friday morning, more than 50,000 people have signed it.

Here’s Hari’s compelling argument:

The Treasury Department regulates beer – not the FDA – so beer manufacturers like Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors don’t have to put the ingredients on the label – or on their website or tell us what’s in the beer we are drinking and buying.

We know more about what’s in a bottle of Windex and Coca Cola than we do about one of the world’s most popular drinks – BEER!

In a Thursday post, Hari celebrated Anheuser-Busch’s decision to start its new site, and she urged MillerCoors to do the same.

In a statement to Advertising Age, MillerCoors said it would be “putting more ingredient information online in the days ahead” and noted that some of its beers do have nutritional labels.

Though the big beer makers seem to be eager to satisfy Hari, a few critics have said her tone is alarmist. Beer Marketer’s Insights, a trade publication, said in a report that Hari’s tactics could “easily create consumer uproar” through “exaggeration, fear mongering and semi-truths in the name of advocacy.”