Diageo to provide calorie labelling on all beers, wines and spirits

By Erin Smith

Published: 19 March, 2015

Diageo is to provide on-pack calorie advice on typical servings across its spirits, beers and wine, it announced today.

Diageo is to provide on-pack calorie advice on typical servings across its spirits, beers and wine, it announced today. .

It will be the first drinks company to provide consumers with nutritional information, calories per typical serve, and alcohol content, across its drinks portfolio. The information will appear on-pack subject to local regulatory approval or through its responsible drinking website DRINKiQ.com.

Ivan Menezes, Diageo's chief executive officer said the company was committed to ensuring its consumers had the best possible information to help them make informed choices about its products. "This includes alcohol content and nutrition information per typical serve," he said.

He argued that it was critical the information be provided in a format that all consumers could understand. This has been a challenge to date as EU member states have different measurements of alcohol units. He said: "We want to provide alcohol and nutrition information that consumers can quickly understand, instead of expecting them to do the maths."

Diageo has already gained regulatory approval for the voluntary labelling in the US and will be working with the EU to establish a standard alcohol unit across the 28 member states.

This is an example of the per serve alcohol and nutritional label for the US for 12 fl.oz of Harp Lager

Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association who spoke to harpers.co.uk in November about the need for the industry to take the lead on calorie labelling, commended the move: "The measures announced by Diageo are another positive sign that the alcohol industry is committed to improving consumer awareness and providing relevant information where possible. It also shows that individual companies are prepared to take action on a voluntary basis and importantly recognises that there are a variety of different ways in which consumers receive information about the products they buy," he said.

Diageo to provide alcohol content and nutritional information per typical serve on products Diageo to provide alcohol content and nutritional information per typical serve on productsThis is an example of the per serve alcohol and nutritional label for the US for 12 fl.oz of Harp Lager

Within the European Union, alcoholic drinks are currently exempt from providing nutritional information on labels, while other food items are required to provide it per 100mL serving. However, the company believes that this can be misleading to consumers as most alcoholic beverages are not consumed this way and will thus provide the information per typical serves of different drinks across beer, wine and spirits.

Beale said: "While many simply want to see the exemption for alcohol from labelling requirements removed, this will not provide an answer that is universally acceptable. It is important that industry works to find the best way to provide meaningful information to consumers and Diageo's work is a welcome contribution to that."

Ian Duncan, MEP for Scotland and Member of the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, said: "Today's announcement from Diageo is a fine example of their commitment to giving consumers the information that they need to make sensible decisions about alcohol. Providing both the nutrition and alcohol content of alcohol drinks, in an easy to understand 'per serving' format, is a major improvement on the confusing current system, where there are different measurements of alcohol units across the EU."

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