WSTA launches low & no alcohol labelling guide

By Lisa Riley

Published: 13 January, 2021

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has produced new guidance around the labelling of low & no alcohol drinks as a record number of Brits explore the category.

Produced in partnership with the WTSA’s Primary Authority Trading Standards Partners, the guide is aimed at both retailers and producers.

The WSTA said the aim of the guide was to establish acceptable legal names, marketing text and general labelling requirements for low & no alcohol drinks.

This, it added, would help ensure clarity and certainty for producers that they were labelling and marketing their products in the “correct way”.

The guide also looked to boost confidence for consumers in the category, helping them make informed purchasing decisions through “clear, accurate, and consistent” labelling – which the WSTA said had been retailers’ “over-riding concern and motivation” for asking the trade body to offer advice that could be applicable UK market-wide.

“There has been a huge amount of innovation and product development across the low & no alcohol category in recent years. Confusion – for producers and for consumers – led to a request of the WSTA to pull together comprehensive advice. Along with our Primary Authority partners, we have produced this new guide to help both producers and consumers,” said CEO Miles Beale.

“We know that overall alcohol sales fell during 2020. Many Brits want to start 2021 by reducing the amount of alcohol they drink, or cutting it out completely, which is why I am delighted to have been able to publish this guidance so early in the year,” he added.

The new guidance applies to low & no alcohol drinks that are packaged and marketed as a substitute or alternative to spirit drinks and is designed to complement existing – and any future – Low Alcohol Descriptors Guidance produced by the Department of Health and Social Care.