Calorie counts on alcohol long overdue

The Press reports:

Public health advocates are taking one labelling win – all alcohol drinks will soon have calorie counts printed on their labels – and they’ve now got a new challenge: getting cancer warnings labels on liquor.

Consumers may have already noticed that some of the alcoholic drinks they buy now show an “energy statement”, as per rules introduced about a year ago mandating beverages containing 0.5% or more “alcohol by volume” (ABV) or alcohol-reduced or free versions of the above requiring a panel on the product showing how many calories people are consuming with each drink.

All liquor will have to be labelled this way by 2028.

The new rules, quietly introduced by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), also say a product can include a Nutrition Information Panel instead of a specific energy statement, and must include an NIP if making claims about nutrition content, which can contain energy, carbohydrate, sugar and gluten content.

I actually wrote in favour of this back in 2012. Dispassionate neutral info that can help people make decisions is a good thing.

I’d actually mandate that meals sold in cafes etc should have calorie count information printed on menus, on available in the store (as is the case in New York).