Booze in the news
Although many people are currently in the middle of ‘dry January’ – the annual campaign which encourages participants to give up alcohol for 31 days – beers, wines and spirits haven’t strayed far from the headlines so far this year.
Last week, the UK government revised alcohol guidelines set out in 1995. According to the new limits, men and women should consume no more than 14 units a week, which is equivalent to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine.
This is a shift from the previous government recommendations, which set out daily drinking limits of three to four units for men and two to three for women – that’s effectively up to 28 and 21 units a week respectively, so the new 14 weekly units for both is a considerable reduction, but more so for men.
In other news last week, AB InBev UK announced that it will soon provide full nutritional information for its beers – which include Stella Artois, Budweiser and Corona – both on pack and online.
The move follows a recent survey conducted by IPSOS Mori on behalf of the brewer, which revealed that UK consumers have limited knowledge of calorie levels in beer, with less than one in five claiming to be aware of them.
The survey showed that providing more information on beer would be beneficial for consumers, with over a third of respondents saying they pay close attention to their daily calorie consumption (36 per cent) and actively look at the calorie information of their drinks (35 per cent).
