Alcohol labeling: Are consumers getting enough information about what they drink in the UK?

The law requires very little information on alcohol labels. The only information required is the volume of the container, the drink’s strength (ABV) and the presence of allergens.

Beyond this, alcohol labeling of details such as ingredients, nutritional information and number of units in the container is left optional. But the industry is following a worldwide shift towards transparency, moving towards providing more and more information voluntarily to consumers.

The Portman Group - the industry self-regulator funded by alcohol industry giants such as Asahi, Bacardi, Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I, Diageo and Brown-Forman – says voluntary efforts to provide more information to consumers are working.

It’s just carried out a survey of some 500 alcohol products to see how well brands adhere to its voluntary health labeling guidelines.

It found near universal coverage of 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.

Beyond this, the research also revealed ‘significant increases’ in brands showcasing additional elements such as calorie information, drink driving warnings and age restrictions. 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 the last market review in 2021.

The Portman Group is helping brands add in additional information:  and part of that has been helping brands understand what information is most useful.

"We support producers including the additional elements and uptake is increasing year on year which is positive, but our best practice guidelines are clear that producers must prioritize including the core elements: pregnancy warnings, unit information, active signposting to Drinkaware.co.uk and the Chief Medical Officers’ low risk guideline of 14 units a week," a spokesperson told us.

Mandatory alcohol information?

But the UK’s Alcohol Health Alliance is calling on the government to make many voluntary initiatives mandatory: specifically information about ingredients, calories, units, the CMO guidelines and health risks the come from drinking alcohol during pregnancy and the risk of cancer.

That follows new legislation in Ireland: the country is set to introduce a world first in 2026 with mandatory health warning labels on alcohol​. These warnings will have to inform people of the danger of alcohol consumption, the danger of drinking while pregnant, and the link between alcohol and cancer (In the UK, just 3% of products include a general health warning about alcohol consumption, according to the Alcohol Health Alliance).

Products will also have to contain information such as the quantity of grams of alcohol and the number of calories.

But the Portman Group says that its survey shows that voluntary compliance is working when it comes to giving consumers more information about their products.

"The results of our market review demonstrate already near levels of voluntary compliance regarding our best practice guidelines, which ensures consumers have access to a range of health information without the need for government mandate and at no cost to the taxpayer," the spokesperson told us.

"We don’t believe mandatory warnings are necessary and, whilst we support producers voluntarily providing further information, such as information on calories, to consumers to help them make responsible choices, we should prioritize giving people actionable advice on packaging, such as sticking within the CMO guidelines.

"The Portman Group conducts regular market reviews such as this one and follows up with individual producers and suppliers where their products lack core elements of the best practice guidelines and the evidence shows that this successfully drives further voluntary compliance."