It has called for alcohol drink labels to include warnings including the government drinking guidelines, a drink-drive warning and calorie contents.
The report called Labelling the point recommends a best practice scheme with a new approach in response to what it calls an 'alcohol health awareness vacuum'.
It highlighted data from the Alcohol Health Alliance 2017, which revealed that less than one-in-six people (16%) were aware of the government’s low-risk alcohol guidelines.
The RSPH report argued that there should be mandatory inclusion of the government’s low-risk drinking guidelines of no more than 14 units a week, in a style similar to the cigarette packets.
It claimed that explicit warnings such a ‘drink drive’ should be placed on the front label. It also argues for calorie content per container or per serve on the label as it claimed its own research indicated this could result in an almost 10% swing in consumer purchasing decisions from the highest alcohol drinks to the lowest.
The RSPH has also accused the drinks watchdog the Portman Group of no longer being serious about setting a challenge for the industry to play its part in protecting the public’s health. It originally worked with the organisation on research, including a survey of almost 1,800 adults, but claimed the Portman Group had moved to make alcohol labels less informative to the public. It accused it of releasing new guidance to manufacturers in September 2017 that no longer included the government’s low-risk drinking guidelines as a required element.
However, John Timothy, chief executive of the Portman Group said the original research that was co-funded with the RSPH, found little public interest in a radical overhaul of drinks labelling and strong opposition to cramming more information on pack.
“The study shows that 86% of consumers only look at labels for factual information and branding with 80% saying they would like to see less cluttered labels,” he said. “When asked specifically about health, 70% said the current approach was about right.”
“These findings support the approach taken by the industry in developing updated voluntary guidance which includes a whole section on how producers can display the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines on labels. To suggest otherwise is misrepresentative. The Portman Group remains committed to providing consumers with accurate and accessible health information.”
Meanwhile Shirley Cramer, chief executive of RSPH, said: “Consumer health information and warnings are now mandatory and readily available on most products from tobacco to food and soft drinks, but alcohol continues to lag behind. If we are to raise awareness and reduce alcohol harm, this must change.”
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), said: “The decision last year by the Portman Group to weaken their recommendations on what should appear on alcohol labels clearly showed that alcohol producers wish to withhold information on alcohol and health from the public.
“Their decision not to endorse the findings of this report is yet more evidence that producers cannot be relied upon to communicate the risks linked with alcohol.”