A new review of alcohol labelling on the UK market has revealed near universal levels of adherence across the alcohol industry with the Portman Group’s voluntary health labelling guidelines.
The study, which is released today (12 September) and the largest of its kind, sampled 500 alcohol products from the UK’s top brands and demonstrates the robust voluntary industry-wide commitment to providing consumers with public health information.
It found near universal coverage of our minimum guidelines:
Over 99% of labels carry a pregnancy warning logo or message.
96% carry alcohol unit content information, up from 94% in our 2021 review.
86% carry the UK Chief Medical Officers guideline not to regularly drink more than 14 units per week, up from 79% in our previous review.
92% carry a reference to Drinkaware or other responsibility messaging.
74% of labels use a box to explicitly separate information for consumers, including 86% of products which carried the Chief Medical Officers’ Guideline. We will further clarify our advice to producers that this is our recommended method for presenting Portman Group best practice.
The research also revealed significant increases in many brands going above and beyond the guidelines and showcasing additional elements such as calorie information, drink driving warnings and age restriction – further demonstrating a serious and widespread commitment to responsible marketing and tackling harm. Over half (51%) carry calorie information on labels and over a third (38%) carry a warning against drink driving, as well as over a third (36%) carrying age restriction warnings. These are all increases since our last market review in 2021.
For over 25 years, the UK alcohol industry has proactively worked to ensure that alcohol labelling is both socially responsible and informative for consumers, and our latest industry Best Practice Guidance, ensures consumers have access to more product and health information than ever before.
Where there are small gaps in the market, we have already begun reaching out to producers to encourage further take up of the guidelines with many already confirming changes are underway. Any producers who are unsure of the guidelines or our Codes of Practice are encouraged to take advantage of our free and confidential Advisory Service.
Matt Lambert, CEO of the Portman Group said: “We’re incredibly pleased to see such positive levels of increasing adherence to our best practice guidelines, which showcase the alcohol industry’s long-standing commitment to proactively ensuring responsible marketing and informing consumers. It’s important to remember that all of this has been achieved without any need for government legislation and crucially at no cost to the UK taxpayer.
“Our guidelines are absolutely clear that labels should contain distinct information, such as on units and Government lower-risk drinking guidelines, so that consumers are able to easily understand and make informed choices about their alcohol consumption. It’s particularly positive to see not only is this being near universally met, but many producers are going above and beyond to provide additional information such as calories and drink driving warnings.”
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