Alcohol’s exemption from labelling rules are “absurd”, a health alliance has said, calling on the government to publish its planned consultation on alcohol labelling “without further delay”.
Study published Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) this week found that two medium glasses (175ml each) of wine can contain as many calories as a burger (250), and that two glasses of some wines can exceed your daily sugar limit.
With this information missing from most alcohol labels, drinkers are being “kept in the dark about just how much sugar and calories are in the products they buy”, AHA said.
The analysis by AHA also found that the products containing the most sugar tended to be the lower-strength wines. With no legal requirement to display sugar content on alcohol labels, drinkers opting for a lower-strength alcohol choice, perhaps thinking this is a healthier option, are unwittingly upping their daily sugar intake.
None of the 30 products examined in this study displayed sugar content on their labels; information which is required for all non-alcoholic drinks. Calorie content was only displayed on 20 percent of the labels examined, AHA said.
“Alcohol’s current exemption from food and drink labelling rules is absurd. Shoppers who buy milk or orange juice have sugar content and nutritional information right at their fingertips. But this information is not required when it comes to alcohol – a product not just fuelling obesity but with widespread health harms and linked to seven types of cancer,” Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK said.
Alcoholic drinks are only required to display the volume and strength (in ABV) and common allergens. Information on nutritional values (including calories and sugar content), ingredients, or health warnings is not required and is therefore largely absent from labels.
Brian McLister