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Cancer Prevention Action Week highlights need for clear health information on alcohol products

by Sophie Bridger, Policy Manager, Alcohol Focus Scotland

This week is Cancer Prevention Action Week, and we’re calling for mandatory labelling requirements on alcohol, including health warnings.

When I started at Alcohol Focus Scotland last year, I was amazed how little I really knew about alcohol. As someone who had been drinking their entire adult life, I knew a fair amount about how alcohol is produced. I’d done the distillery tours, and I know what products and brands I like. I knew about heritage, terroir, local and sustainable production. These are the some of the messages the alcohol industry is keen to promote.

However, there’s a lot of information alcohol producers are not required to share with consumers. Amazingly, the labelling and information requirements we have for food and drink don’t apply to alcohol - the alcohol industry decides for itself what is important for consumers to know, and what good practice looks like.  In fact, producers need to put more information on orange juice or milk than they do on beer or wine.

Surely that can’t be right when alcohol is linked to over 200 health conditions, including seven kinds of cancer? Yet there’s no legal requirement for what goes on alcohol labels – and no requirement for any kind of health warning.

Our most recent study, in partnership with Alcohol Health Alliance, found that one in five alcohol products didn’t contain even the minimum information from the alcohol industry’s own voluntary labelling guidelines. We found drinks that didn’t include the number of units per container, or per serving – making it very challenging for people to monitor how much they’re drinking. Full ingredients lists were missing (shockingly, also not a legal requirement for alcohol).

For me, the most concerning part was the absence of health warning on most drinks. Only 6.7% of drinks contained a health warning as vague as ‘alcohol is harmful to your health’. Drinks were ten times more likely to have alcohol industry responsible drinking messaging than even a vague, general health warning. Specific warnings on cancer were only present on products from Ireland – where they are being brought in ahead of new legal requirements.

When we leave the alcohol industry in charge of what information they share, we get stories about heritage, whimsy and fun. It’s not surprising that producers don’t want to include a cancer warning on their product - but consumers have a right to know. We shouldn’t rely on alcohol producers to choose to give consumers such important information, particularly when they have a strong commercial interest not to share what they know.

This week is Cancer Prevention Action Week. Alcohol is a leading cause of preventable cancers, including breast cancer. Reducing how much we drink – both on a personal and population level – is an important way to prevent cancer. We need our Governments to introduce mandatory requirements for alcohol labels, including health and cancer warnings. Consumers have a right to this information, and it’s time they got it.