Calorie Labelling on pre-packaged alcoholic drinks

Title

Purpose

The aim of this project is to understand how calorie labelling on pre-packaged alcohol products may influence consumer drinking behaviour.

Background

There is evidence that individuals are unaware of the energy content of alcoholic drinks and that people support transparent energy labelling. At present there is no legal requirement to provide calorie information on prepacked alcoholic drinks. Around 70% of UK alcohol sales occur in off-trade premises, which includes supermarkets and shops. Introducing mandatory calorie labelling on alcoholic drinks has the potential to be used to tackle both obesity and high levels of alcohol consumption. There remains a lack of evidence that its introduction will influence consumer behaviour.

Aims and methodology

A rapid literature review will be conducted by colleagues at ICH to gather more information on previous studies exploring the impact of calorie labelling on alcohol consumption. Quantitative research will then be conducted in collaboration with the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group (UCL) through the Alcohol Toolkit Study. The Alcohol Toolkit Study is a detailed national panel study used to understand population-wide influences on alcohol use through phone interviews with around 1,800 new participants each month. The Alcohol Toolkit Study collects information on drinking behaviour and sociodemographic factors. Questions on calorie and alcohol unit labelling on pre-packaged alcohol products will be added to the study to explore how they relate to consumers’ drinking behaviours.

Timing

October 2022