Australia’s Northern Territory will become the first jurisdiction in the country to set a minimum price for alcohol, in a move that has been welcomed by health experts but is likely to face a backlash from industry.
Canadian R&D company and brewer of alcohol-free beer, Province Brands, has filed a provisional patent for the technology to develop a beer brewed from the cannabis plant.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for the introduction of new labeling regulations – such as cigarette-style health warnings, drink drive warnings, and calorie content – on alcoholic drinks in the UK.
LGC Capital, Creso Pharma, and Baltic Beer Company have formed a joint venture company, CLV Frontier Brands, which aims to develop a full beverage portfolio using cannabis terpene blends and hemp ingredients worldwide, starting with beer.
Consumption of alcoholic drinks has been largely static in recent years whereas the use of cannabis is growing and will continue to expand, offering a commercial opportunity for the alcohol industry in North America, according to Euromonitor analysts.
The US Congress has passed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2017 (CBMTRA), a bill that will cut the federal excise tax on beer, spirits, and wine producers effective on Jan. 1, 2018.
Australian consumer advocacy group CHOICE is campaigning for mandatory kilojoule (calorie) labelling on alcoholic beverages, in order to give consumers more information about what they drink.
UK and European wine and spirits trade bodies have presented a united Brexit position paper: ‘taking the bull by the horns’ to nail down key issues for the industry.
The Australian drinks industry has accused an alcohol awareness group of “attempting to create a crisis where none exists” after it called for TV ads promoting alcohol to be phased out at times when children were likely to be watching sports broadcasts.
Wild Tonic Jun Kombucha’s 5.6% ABV line is expanding its distribution and flavor offerings aiming to take the alcoholic fermented beverage nationwide in the US by mid-2018, the company said.
The Independent Complaints Panel has upheld two complaints against CollaGin – a UK gin distilled with pure collagen – for packaging that ‘suggested the product had therapeutic qualities or could help with the consumer’s appearance in some way’.
A Facebook ad for alcoholic beverage VK has been banned, after the UK’s advertising standards watchdog upheld complaints that it was socially irresponsible and promoted unwise drinking styles.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is set to alter its ‘Cellared in Canada’ wine label designation after receiving complaints from consumers and the Canadian wine industry that the description was “misleading” and “uninformative."
Global alcohol consumption is declining at a faster rate than it has for the past five years with diminishing volume sales of vodka, beer, and cider leading the downturn, a report from IWSR showed.
The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK has risen more in the last 12 weeks than it had in the last two years, according to figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).
The craft beer industry must resist and fight the imposing threat of large beer corporations who are seeking to monopolize the beer market, president and CEO of the Brewers Association (BA), Bob Pease, said at the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington...
Should your bottle of wine tell you how many calories you are consuming? Should your beer list its ingredients? Given consumers’ increased scrutiny over what they eat – and drink – the answer is yes. But of course, nothing is ever simple.
European Commission report on consumer information on alcoholic beverages
The European Commission is inviting the alcoholic beverage industry to develop a self-regulatory proposal that provides information on ingredients and nutrition on all alcoholic beverages.
Molson Coors plant workers in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, have been on strike since January 12, 2017, after a list of concessionary demands were made by the brewer that negatively impacted employee benefits, pensions, and hours.
Constellation Brands says it is “too early to know” how US President Donald Trump’s policies – and in particular a 20% tax on imports from Mexico - will affect its business.
As the UK looks to Brexit, the UK's Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) wants to see trade deals that minimize disruption and create new opportunities. It says the industry needs to get involved to help prepare the ground, and collaboration...
Kiwi viewers can be exposed to four alcoholic drinks brands every minute as they watch sport on the television, leading some children to assume that drinking alcohol was “part of being a good New Zealander”.
Young people are exposed to ‘extensive alcohol marketing’ and governments around the world need to strengthen rules, say public health experts, as a supplement on the subject is published in the journal Addiction. But the Alcohol Information Partnership,...
Children given sips of alcohol by their parents are much more likely to be drinking full measures by 16, but less likely to binge drink, according to a study of 2,000 Australian children over four years.
An Australian study into how alcohol companies use sport to sell their products via social media suggests that businesses go beyond simple promotion by encouraging their audiences to create and share their own booze-boosting content.
Spirits will face the greatest impact from Scotland’s impending minimum unit price legislation, with 69% of volume currently sold being below the 50p per unit threshold. But wine and premium brands could benefit from the legislation.
In Europe, 86% of today’s consumers want to see ingredients and nutrition information provided for alcoholic beverages: an increase from two years ago.
A Carlsberg UK video has been banned by the UK’s advertising standards authority for linking alcohol with a building site, ‘an unsafe and unwise location in which to consume alcohol’.
A survey of British social attitudes suggests that 52% of the public supports minimum unit pricing (MUP), while attitudes vary between people who drink lightly and heavily.
Should alcohol brands be allowed to advertise on television? Should they be able to sponsor sporting events? A survey into British attitudes has found public opinion is divided on these issues.
The Alcohol Information Partnership (AIP) has been launched in the UK this week. With Diageo, Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard among its members, the group aims to ‘ensure the debate around alcohol and alcohol misuse remains balanced’.
A Texas federal judge has sided with three Texas-based craft brewers, striking down a 2013 law that required breweries to give up their distribution and territorial rights.
The EU has requested the establishment of a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel to rule on a dispute over what it says is Colombia's discriminatory treatment of imported spirits.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), a UK consumer organisation, is calling for a consultation on alcohol guidelines, saying that ‘government advice on drinking is at odds with common sense’.
The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking – a group supported by global alcohol beverage companies including AB InBev, Heineken and Diageo – says ‘good progress’ has been made on a set of commitments to reduce alcohol related harm.
Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors and Heineken USA are among the brewers in the US who have agreed to provide more information on beer labels, including calorie content and other nutritional information.
The European Commission has opened an investigation to assess whether AB InBev has abused its ‘dominant position on the Belgian beer market’ by hindering imports of its beer from neighboring countries, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
Rising alcohol sales in Scotland has strengthened the case for introducing minimum unit pricing, according to Scotland’s public health minister Aileen Campbell.
The UK’s Prime Minister says that jobs and investment in the wine and spirits industry could be at risk if the UK leaves the EU. Meanwhile, the Wine and Spirits Trade Association has announced that 90% of its members want to stay in the EU.
