With the UK Government’s ten-year health plan promising new alcohol labelling standards, Fiona Hughes examines the current system and whether clearer labels could help reduce alcohol-related harm.
Almost all prepacked food in the UK must carry nutritional information, ingredients, and health-related guidance. Food packaging is required to include information on energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, and salt. Since 2022, the Secretary of State has also required large food businesses to display calorie information on menus.
Alcohol, however, is treated differently.
Despite being linked to more than 200 health conditions, including cancer, liver disease, and cardiovascular disease (1 2), alcohol labelling requirements in the UK remain limited.
What does the law currently say about alcohol labelling?
In the UK, alcohol labels are only required to display a small amount of information:
- the volume of the container
- alcohol by volume (ABV)
- allergen information relating to the 14 most common allergens
Unlike food products, alcoholic drinks above 1.2% ABV are not required to display full nutritional information. There is also no mandatory requirement to display calorie information of alcoholic drinks on menus. The distinction between food products and alcoholic drinks is based on historical and political reasoning, rather than evidence that nutritional information is less relevant for alcoholic beverages.
The absence of mandatory labelling does not mean that alcohol is regularly being sold without labelling. Additional information often appears on labels, with many suppliers following voluntary guidance produced by alcohol industry body, the Portman Group. They recommend that alcohol labels include:
- unit alcohol content per container
- pregnancy warning logos or messaging
- references to Drinkaware (an alcohol industry-funded charity)
- the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines
The Portman Group also recommends further optional messaging on calorie content, age restrictions, drink-driving, and responsible drinking.
A 2026 Portman Group review of 500 alcohol products from major UK brands found high levels of compliance with their own guidance:
- 99% carried pregnancy warnings
- 96% displayed alcohol unit content
- 89% displayed the latest UK Chief Medical Officer’s low risk drinking guidelines
- 62% carried calorie information
- 48% carried drink-driving warnings
In contrast, a review of labelling by the Alcohol Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 60 organisations working to reduce alcohol-related harm, found that:
- full ingredient lists appeared on only 28% of products
- one in five products did not provide the minimum information set out by the Portman Group alcohol labelling guidelines
- only 7% of products carried any health warning
- specific warnings on cancer appeared on just 1% of products
What role should an industry body have in determining labelling guidance?
The Alcohol Health Alliance have argued that the Portman labelling guidance doesn’t go far enough – overlooking health warnings, and failing to provide a “strong incentive for businesses to overrule their commercial interests […] by providing clear, detailed health information that consumers have a right to know”:
“An independent regulator should provide oversight on alcohol labelling and hold the sector to account. This regulator should be free from both industry influence and from alcohol industry funding.”
Industry approaches to labelling have often focused on individual responsibility, encouraging consumers to ‘drink responsibly’ and emphasising harms such as drink-driving or underage drinking. Experts at an SSA alcohol policy roundtable argued that this shifts attention away from structural measures – such as pricing, availability, and marketing regulation – that may have greater population-level effects on alcohol harm.
Professor John Holmes, Director of the Sheffield Addictions Research Group, said:
“Voluntary labelling schemes have not delivered the clear, comprehensive information that consumers need to make informed choices about their alcohol consumption. Too many alcohol producers include only the most basic information, often using text that is too small and difficult to read.”
“The government can use its proposed health warning labels to ensure the information on drink labels follows robust public health principles rather than relying on inadequate voluntary measures that allow significant gaps to remain.”
What are alcohol labels for?
Public health organisations believe that consumers remain poorly informed about alcohol-related risks, particularly cancer risk. Both the Alcohol Health Alliance and CancerWatch have called for mandatory health warning labels that explicitly communicate cancer risk. In 2025, the World Health Organization argued that cancer warning labels should form part of alcohol policy across Europe. Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe, said:
“Clear and prominent health warning labels on alcohol, which include a specific cancer warning are a cornerstone of the right to health, because they empower individuals with vital information to make informed choices about the harm alcoholic products can cause.”
The World Health Organization’s position reflects an increasingly influential argument that health information is not simply educational, but part of consumers’ right to make informed choices.
What does the evidence show?
The evidence on alcohol labelling suggests that labels can improve awareness and may influence behaviour (1 2) – but that their effects are likely to be modest when implemented in isolation.
A 2024 systematic review published in The Lancet examined studies of alcohol container labels between 1989 and 2024. The review concluded, with low to moderate certainty, that labels may help reduce alcohol consumption. In other words, “alcohol container labels probably influence some alcohol consumption behaviour”, such as reducing consumption before driving. But the review did not prove that warning labels could substantially reduce alcohol consumption across the population. The evidence remains more convincing for changes in awareness and risk perception than for sustained reductions in overall alcohol consumption.
Research from the University of Bristol, published in 2018, identified several features associated with more effective labels. Alcohol warnings were more likely to attract attention when they:
- used clear, direct, evidence-based language
- appeared prominently and separately from other information
- used bold text and contrasting colours
- occupied a substantial proportion of packaging
- rotated messages over time
The Bristol researchers found that cancer warnings were particularly effective at prompting reflection on alcohol-related harms. However, awareness did not always translate into intentions to reduce drinking, and intentions did not necessarily translate into behaviour change.
The report also noted that heavier drinkers frequently reported lower confidence in their ability to change their behaviour, suggesting that warning labels are likely to be most effective when combined with broader interventions including minimum unit pricing and support services such as treatment and recovery programmes.
Stakeholder interviews conducted as part of the Bristol research also highlighted practical limitations. Some participants felt they may ignore warnings, while others said they might not even see the labels if purchasing alcohol in pubs or restaurants.
As a result, researchers concluded that labelling should be viewed as just one component of a broader public health strategy rather than a standalone intervention. For example, they looked at beer mats and drinking glasses as alternative methods to communicate risk in these settings.
What are other countries doing?
Internationally, alcohol labelling policy remains uneven. According to the World Health Organization, only three of the 27 European Union countries currently implement alcohol health warning labels, while only 13 of the 53 countries in the World Health Organization European Region have any form of alcohol health warning system.
South Korea introduced mandatory health warning statements on alcoholic beverages in 1995 under the National Health Promotion Act. Earlier labels focused mainly on pregnancy risks, while later versions expanded to mention broader alcohol-related harms. From later this year, alcohol labels in South Korea must also include stronger warnings and pictograms. However, while South Korea is often cited as an example of implementation of alcohol labelling, there is little research into how effective this is in terms of shifting behaviour around drinking.
Ireland has attracted attention as the first country to legislate for comprehensive alcohol health warning labels under the Public Health (Alcohol) (Labelling) Regulations 2023. The legislation includes warnings relating to cancer and liver disease alongside calorie information and pregnancy warnings. Implementation, however, has been delayed until 2028 following industry lobbying, including submissions to the European Commission citing a lack of evidence supporting the content of health warning labels and negative trade and economic impacts of alcohol health warning labels.
Minimum unit pricing in Scotland was similarly delayed by six years, when the alcohol industry held up implementation of legislation by a series of legal challenges. This rendered the policy less effective as the unit price did not rise with inflation.
What’s next for the UK?
The UK Government has said that it intends to move beyond voluntary guidance. Its ten-year health plan proposes mandatory requirements for alcoholic drinks to display:
- consistent nutritional information
- calorie information
- health warning messaging
The Portman Group has questioned the need for mandatory alcohol labelling. They say:
“We believe further progress can be made on a continued voluntary partnership basis, rather than through mandatory measures.”
This position appears to differ considerably from that of public health organisations, particularly on the balance between commercial interests and consumer health.
The UK Government states that mandatory requirements “will ensure greater public awareness of the health risks of alcohol consumption and help consumers make more informed, healthier choices”, which would bring alcohol labelling closer to the standards already applied to food, tobacco, and alcohol-free drinks.
Public health campaigners, researchers, and policymakers will all now watch with interest to see whether the proposed reforms lead to a more consistent, evidence-based approach to alcohol policy.
by Fiona Hughes
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