News
- Challenge and Change: Rod Anderson
- Parliament must come together to renew and reinvigorate MUP
- A responsible drinking campaign that features cocktail recipes
- Unacceptable rise in alcohol-specific deaths
- Health experts share concerns about complaint made on MUP evaluation
- Decline in alcohol treatment in Scotland
- Challenge and Change: Lived Experience Voices on Alcohol Marketing
- Blog post for Alcohol Awareness Week 2023
- Final verdict on MUP
- Alcohol and diabetes
- Doctors say lack of response on alcohol deaths could spell disaster for Scotland
- MUP reduces deaths and hospital admissions
- Alcohol hospital admissions continue to be too high
- Lessons learned from countries with marketing restrictions
- What is the effect of alcohol marketing on people with or at risk of an alcohol problem?
- ONS figures show highest alcohol deaths on record
- MUP and alcohol sales
- Scottish Government launches alcohol marketing consultation
- MUP and alcohol products and prices
- Scottish Health Survey 2021
- New licensing policy review guide
- Slight increase in alcohol-specific deaths
- Health campaigners call on Scottish Government to regulate alcohol packaging
- Scottish charity calls for ban on all alcohol promotion
- New NCD Prevention Report - Mapping Future Harm
- Online Alcohol Sales & Deliveries: A survey of young people in Scotland
- Four years of MUP
- Prominent health warnings make drinking “unappealing”
- Insights from People in Recovery
- Meet our Engagement Team Marc
- Meet our Engagement Team Megan
- Report on alcohol sales and harm in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Sugar content in wine revealed
- Alcohol hospital admissions lower during pandemic
- Study reveals those already at risk from heavy drinking bought more alcohol during lockdowns
- Alcohol policy measures could reduce ambulance callouts
- 18.6% increase in deaths from alcohol in 2020
- Widespread support for calls to increase minimum unit price for alcohol to 65p
- Students as Change Agents
- Health charities call for action to save lives from Scotlands biggest killers
- Three quarters of Scots back new controls to help protect children from alcohol advertising
- Alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland increase
- More accurate estimates for the burden of Alcohol on the Ambulance Service: around 1 in 6 callouts in Scotland are alcohol related
- How can alcohol labels be improved to help people make informed consumption choices
- Health experts call for better alcohol labelling
- Young people and their views on alcohol marketing
- Lowest alcohol sales in Scotland for 26 years
- Minimum unit pricing has lasting impact study shows
- Euros renews call for action to protect children from alcohol sports sponsorship
- Current alcohol labelling of little relevance to young adult drinkers
- Governments should step up efforts to tackle harmful alcohol consumption
- Scottish public and leading health experts back changes to alcohol labelling
- AFS calls for 65p minimum unit price for alcohol
- How will the main parties prevent harm from alcohol?
- Alcohol labelling reform is way past its sell by date
- Alcohol policy priorities for the next parliament
- Young drinkers believe prominent health warnings on alcohol could boost risk awareness
- Alcohol and the Workplace Effective Interventions
- Alcohol sales and consumption in Scotland during the pandemic
- How can we prevent alcohol deaths?
- Alcohol Deaths and Minimum Unit Pricing
- YoungScot Health Panel report on alcohol marketing and harm
- Young Scots show support for restrictions on alcohol marketing
- New release of alcohol related hospital admissions
- Better alcohol labelling – A way to boost awareness of the risk between alcohol and cancer?
- NICE Guidelines on FASD Surveillance or Support?
- Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support
- Almost half of Scots in favour of minimum unit pricing
- Leading health charities call for action in Scotland
- Health experts campaign for better understanding of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- Health experts call for alcohol labelling overhaul
- Australian ministers agree to visible pregnancy warning
- Alcohol Focus Scotland welcomes new WHO report on alcohol pricing
- Survey shows Scots lockdown drinking rise caused by stress
- Statistical analysis of off-trade alcohol sales in the year following MUP
- Alcohol Focus Scotland Review of statements of licensing policy 2018 to 2023
- We need to continue long-term focus on alcohol
- Scots report changing drinking patterns during coronavirus lockdown
- Time to Blow the Whistle on Alcohol Sport Sponsorship
- New evidence demonstrates that alcohol ads lead to youth drinking
- Alcohol sales fall in first year of MUP
- First study published into under 18 drinkers post MUP
- Commission on Alcohol Harm calls for evidence
- Two years on Are annual functions reports reaching their potential?
- We need to do more to protect our children and young people
- New Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support Now Available from AFS
- Scottish primary children call for action on alcohol
- Its time to tell us whats in our drinks
- A home for Rory
- Making a bad impression - blog post
- Alcohol marketing and children debate in the Scottish Parliament
- Alcohol sales and MUP
- Lowest alcohol sales in 25 years
- Research into fall in violence
- The Children's Parliament investigates an alcohol-free childhood
- Minimum unit pricing one year on
- More about sales data
- A family of resources it is all about prevention, education and resilience
- AFS publish Review of Licensing Board Annual Functions Reports 2017-2018
- Marketing unmasked dispelling the myths and taking a stand
- No place for alcohol marketing in sport
- Scotland publishes first UK guidelines for diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
- The Alcohol Framework 2018 Preventing Harm
- Scotlands new drug and alcohol strategy launched
- AFS welcome new alcohol strategy
- Recent reporting on alcohol sales data
- Diageo is failing to provide latest guidelines on their products
- Drinks companies keeping consumers in dark about risky drinking
- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Scotland's licensing system needs clearer direction
- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
- SWA granted leave to appeal minimum pricing
- Scottish Greens call for action on alcohol marketing
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
- Alcohol campaigners unite to call for stronger protection from alcohol advertising to children
- No completely 'safe' level of drinking
- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol: a global concern
Alcohol labelling reform is way past its sell by date
In this blog Holly Gabriel, RNutr, Nutrition Manager at Action on Sugar shares the shocking findings from their sugar survey of alcoholic drinks and explains why calorie information must be included on packaging.
In January 2020, as part of Action on Sugar’s annual Sugar Awareness Week, we ventured into a new world of alcoholic drinks. Traditionally, our research focuses on highlighting the sugar and calorie content of food and drink categories that contribute to poor diet, obesity and related health conditions. Whilst alcohol of course contributes to this, we live in a world where ‘alcohol’ seems to sit on the outskirts of food and drink legislation.
Even though we may be all aware that excess sugar consumption contributes to obesity, type 2 diabetes, various cancers, liver damage and tooth decay, sugar-sweetened alcoholic drinks have somehow managed to completely avoid scrutiny under the UK Government’s sugar reduction policies. Those policies, intended to help reduce sugar intake across the UK population and to reduce rates of people living with obesity, include the voluntary Sugar Reduction Programme, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and voluntary front of pack nutrition labelling. All of which ignore alcoholic drinks.
You could argue that perhaps the nutritional information for traditional beers, wines and spirits remains fairly static, but do we really know what’s in our drinks? Recent research has shown that consumers believe current alcohol labelling isn’t good enough[i]. It is baffling that you can buy alcoholic drinks without being told what is in there - you get more information on a pair of jeans than on some alcoholic drinks! Alcohol labelling is still for the most part, voluntary and self-governed with the only mandatory requirements being the volume of the container, the % ABV (alcohol content), and whether common allergens are present.
Our Sugar Awareness Week survey looked at a total of 202 ‘ready to drink’ alcoholic beverages sold in-store and online. Out of the 154 products collected in-store, nutrition information on pack was shockingly low making it difficult for consumers to know exactly what they are drinking. The popular ‘WKD Blue’ had no nutrition labelling and contained 59g sugar per 700ml bottle - that’s 15 teaspoons! and the only way we could find this out was to send this product for independent analysis[ii]. It seemed there was a tougher stance on alcohol legislation during the so-called gin craze of the 18th century[iii] than in 2020. If governments are really committed to preventing health harms and reducing health inequalities, it’s time they stepped in and took control of the alcohol industry as well as the food and drink manufacturers.
In July 2020, we had our first sign of a breakthrough from the UK Government as the UK Department of Health and Social Care announced in their policy paper ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’[iv], an acknowledgement that it’s not just food and drink that add to our energy intake, alcohol is also highly calorific. They pointed out that amongst other things:
- Alcohol accounts for nearly 10% of the calories consumed by those that drink alcoholic products
- Each year around 3.4 million adults consume an additional day’s worth of calories each week from alcohol
Crucially, they committed to consulting, before the end of the year (2020), on making companies provide calorie information on both alcohol packaging and for alcohol sold in cafes, pubs and restaurants. The Scottish Government have also committed to considering mandatory labelling if progress by industry isn’t satisfactory in their Alcohol Framework 2018: Preventing Harm [v]. Disappointingly the commitment didn't mention the need for full nutrition labelling or even the inclusion of sugar as well as calorie labelling. If UK governments aren’t careful, they will be in danger of being left behind by the EU, who announced by the European Commission in their cancer action plan[vi] in February, a commitment to mandatory ingredients and nutrition declarations on alcoholic drinks labelling by the end of 2022.
Whilst the commitment is now a little past it sell by date, the expected consultation will be welcomed. But we must keep up momentum, as we desperately need an improved UK wide approach to alcohol labelling, that considers the entire spectrum of information required for everyone to make informed choices.
[iv]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-obesity-government-strategy/tackling-obesity-empowering-adults-and-children-to-live-healthier-lives
[v] https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2018/11/alcohol-framework-2018-preventing-harm-next-steps-changing-relationship-alcohol/documents/alcohol-framework-2018-preventing-harm-next-steps-changing-relationship-alcohol/alcohol-framework-2018-preventing-harm-next-steps-changing-relationship-alcohol/govscot%3Adocument/00543214.pdf