Message on a bottle: does the public have enough information about what they are drinking?
Alcohol Concern has been looking at how much information is available to the public about the unit content of the alcohol products they are buying.
Looking at beer, wine and spirits that were heavily promoted by branches of five major supermarkets, we assessed the labels of the products for five key pieces of information - unit content, information on sensible drinking levels, guidance around drinking and pregnancy, the Know Your Limits government message and the Drinkaware website.
This snap-shot found that only 28 out of the 50 promoted products we looked at had unit information on the labels. Equally as worrying, only nine out of the 50 promoted products displayed sensible drinking levels on the labels. Only two promoted products had all five elements suggested by the Department of Health. The public is currently being given insufficient information to be able to know how much they are drinking and what level of drinking is healthy.
