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HomeState of play in the use of alcoholic beverage labels to inform consumers about health aspects
Action to prevent and reduce harm from alcohol
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This study reports on an audit of 60 retailers across 15 European countries regarding the health-related messages that inform and educate the consumer on labels of alcoholic beverages. Overall, only one in five alcoholic beverages holds a health-related message on its label. A warning about drinking alcohol during pregnancy is the most popular message. It was found that messages are usually clearly visible, easy to understand and are placed on the back of beverage packaging. There is no clear pattern in terms of whether messages are presented as a logo or text, though warnings for pregnant women are mostly presented as logos. The size of a message relative to the label varies between package types, but most are very small. Market share analyses revealed sharp differences between countries in the labelling of the top selling beers and spirits. To conclude, only a minority of alcohol labels include health-related messages. When beverages do carry messages, there is wide divergence in their form and formatting. While there is a clear need for guidelines and standardisation, the first goal is to increase the prevalence of health-related messages on labels. The possible means to do this should therefore be explored; legal requirements for messages on alcoholic beverages are the ultimate means of doing this.
- Published:
- Corporate author(s): Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (European Commission) , GFK Belgium
- Personal author(s): De Cuyper, Kim ; Tresignie, christine ; Botterman, Sarah
- Themes: Information policy , Consumers' health , Public health
- Subject: alcohol , alcoholic beverage , alcoholism , consumer protection , health risk , labelling , public awareness campaign , public health , standardisation
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| ISSN | ISBN 978-92-79-36983-4 | DOI 10.2772/12145 | Catalogue number ND-02-14-432-EN-N |
- Released on EU publications website:
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