By Pete Martin, regulatory director, Ashbury Labelling
While almost every packaged food is required to have a nutritional facts label, indicating the serving size and the nutritional value per serving, alcoholic drinks do not. Pete Martin, Regulatory Director at labelling compliance experts, Ashbury Labelling...
After months of legal drama and a two-week trial between Pabst Brewing Co. and MillerCoors, the two beer giants settled a lawsuit last week. Pabst had alleged that MillerCoors, who brews and packages most of Pabst’s products, was attempting to put it...
A year after it was amended to include restrictions on the placement of alcohol advertising in Australia, the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) has been attracting growing criticism from researchers who say the changes are unlikely to reduce young...
‘This is about a US craft brewery standing up against some of the largest drinks producers in the UK’
US craft brewer Flying Dog Brewery says it will continue to distribute its Easy IPA Session India Pale Ale in the UK: ignoring a ruling from an alcohol marketing watchdog which said the beer's artwork ‘encourages illegal, irresponsible or immoderate...
The World Health Organization (WHO) is tackling alcohol-related deaths and illnesses through its new program Safer. It outlines five ‘high-impact strategies’ for governments around the world to follow that can reduce the harmful effects of alcohol use.
Malaysian beer industry leaders Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (Carlsberg) and Heineken Malaysia Bhd (Heineken) have expressed varying opinions about the implementation of the Sales and Service Tax (SST).
The UK’s advertising watchdog has upheld complaints against a series of light-hearted Facebook posts from The Scottish Gin Society, deeming them to be irresponsible. Although the posts were not directly linked to a product, the ASA says the posts should...
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) is to embark on a year-long review of the rules governing sugar claims in relation to alcoholic drinks, amid ministerial concerns of misleading messaging to consumers.
Mainstream culture has seen huge changes with the rise of social media, the internet, ecommerce and smartphones. Innovation and disruption has turned many industries upside down when it comes to retail and marketing, but to date the drinks industry has...
The US is now the largest wine market in the world, but major retailers are still struggling to succeed in ecommerce channels, lagging behind other categories in grocery.
An increasing number of brands are drawing on nostalgia as a marketing tool: but alcohol brands that try to appeal to an adult’s inner child must take care that they do not also inadvertently appeal to children today, warns the Portman Group.
SPAR has been told to stop using the description ‘everyday wine’ with one of its products, given that the term could indicate the ‘acceptability of everyday alcohol consumption’.
In Europe, an ‘alcohol-free’ drink is defined as one under 0.5% ABV. In the UK, however, an ‘alcohol-free’ drink must be 0.05% ABV or below. But the UK’s definition could change, with the government currently consulting on new regulations for low alcohol...
Current alcohol advertising regulations in Australia are failing to protect the health and well-being of adolescents, with academics claiming that it is leading to an environment that is ‘not consistent with the responsible marketing spirit’.
Online grocery offers huge potential for the alcohol category as the virtual channel accounts for just 5% of all online alcohol sales (US$1.7bn) currently but will soon explode, according to Rabobank.
The European alcoholic beverage industry has pledged to provide nutritional information and ingredient lists for drinks, responding to an invitation from the European Commission last year to develop a self-regulatory proposal.
Australia’s Northern Territory will become the first jurisdiction in the country to set a minimum price for alcohol, in a move that has been welcomed by health experts but is likely to face a backlash from industry.
An ALDI advert for spirits – featuring a computer-generated talking carrot called Kevin – has been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog after it ruled it the character would hold ‘strong appeal’ to under 18s.
Canadian R&D company and brewer of alcohol-free beer, Province Brands, has filed a provisional patent for the technology to develop a beer brewed from the cannabis plant.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for the introduction of new labeling regulations – such as cigarette-style health warnings, drink drive warnings, and calorie content – on alcoholic drinks in the UK.
LGC Capital, Creso Pharma, and Baltic Beer Company have formed a joint venture company, CLV Frontier Brands, which aims to develop a full beverage portfolio using cannabis terpene blends and hemp ingredients worldwide, starting with beer.
Consumption of alcoholic drinks has been largely static in recent years whereas the use of cannabis is growing and will continue to expand, offering a commercial opportunity for the alcohol industry in North America, according to Euromonitor analysts.
The US Congress has passed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act of 2017 (CBMTRA), a bill that will cut the federal excise tax on beer, spirits, and wine producers effective on Jan. 1, 2018.
Australian consumer advocacy group CHOICE is campaigning for mandatory kilojoule (calorie) labelling on alcoholic beverages, in order to give consumers more information about what they drink.
UK and European wine and spirits trade bodies have presented a united Brexit position paper: ‘taking the bull by the horns’ to nail down key issues for the industry.
The Australian drinks industry has accused an alcohol awareness group of “attempting to create a crisis where none exists” after it called for TV ads promoting alcohol to be phased out at times when children were likely to be watching sports broadcasts.
Wild Tonic Jun Kombucha’s 5.6% ABV line is expanding its distribution and flavor offerings aiming to take the alcoholic fermented beverage nationwide in the US by mid-2018, the company said.
The Independent Complaints Panel has upheld two complaints against CollaGin – a UK gin distilled with pure collagen – for packaging that ‘suggested the product had therapeutic qualities or could help with the consumer’s appearance in some way’.
A Facebook ad for alcoholic beverage VK has been banned, after the UK’s advertising standards watchdog upheld complaints that it was socially irresponsible and promoted unwise drinking styles.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is set to alter its ‘Cellared in Canada’ wine label designation after receiving complaints from consumers and the Canadian wine industry that the description was “misleading” and “uninformative."
Global alcohol consumption is declining at a faster rate than it has for the past five years with diminishing volume sales of vodka, beer, and cider leading the downturn, a report from IWSR showed.
The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK has risen more in the last 12 weeks than it had in the last two years, according to figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).
The craft beer industry must resist and fight the imposing threat of large beer corporations who are seeking to monopolize the beer market, president and CEO of the Brewers Association (BA), Bob Pease, said at the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington...
Spirits Canada says it is ‘shocked and dismayed’ at an immediate increase in the federal excise duty for spirits, saying that manufacturers in the country already bear one of the highest tax burdens for spirits in the world.
Should your bottle of wine tell you how many calories you are consuming? Should your beer list its ingredients? Given consumers’ increased scrutiny over what they eat – and drink – the answer is yes. But of course, nothing is ever simple.
European Commission report on consumer information on alcoholic beverages
The European Commission is inviting the alcoholic beverage industry to develop a self-regulatory proposal that provides information on ingredients and nutrition on all alcoholic beverages.
Molson Coors plant workers in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, have been on strike since January 12, 2017, after a list of concessionary demands were made by the brewer that negatively impacted employee benefits, pensions, and hours.
Constellation Brands says it is “too early to know” how US President Donald Trump’s policies – and in particular a 20% tax on imports from Mexico - will affect its business.
As the UK looks to Brexit, the UK's Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) wants to see trade deals that minimize disruption and create new opportunities. It says the industry needs to get involved to help prepare the ground, and collaboration...
Kiwi viewers can be exposed to four alcoholic drinks brands every minute as they watch sport on the television, leading some children to assume that drinking alcohol was “part of being a good New Zealander”.
