Publish Calorie Content of Alcoholic Beverages, Doctors’ Group Urges

A group of leading public doctors in the UK has urged the government to expand the need to publish calorie content label to alcoholic beverages as well. While the European Commission has made it mandatory that food items should come with calorie count labels, alcohol is exempted from such laws.

However doctors say that majority of the public are not aware how many calories they are consuming with their drink, with a large glass of wine estimated to contain around 200 calories, as much as a doughnut.

Alcohol drinks manufactures are willing to explore the idea of publishing calorie count on their labels, but said that displaying how many units of alcohol each drink contains was more important. “Drinks producers can play a key role in informing and educating consumers and are open to further discussions about calorie information. However, it is essential that alcohol content, not calorie content, should primarily inform consumer decision-making”, the Portman Group, which represents drinks manufacturers, said in a statement.


Source-Medindia