For those who have been following the recent global developments in food labeling and nutrition awareness, it should come as no surprise that these proposed improvements are now making their way into the alcoholic beverage industry. Recently, Sainsbury’s announced that it would begin including calorie labels on its collection of wines in order to ensure that customers are given all of the information they need to make educated purchasing decisions.
In reality, labels such as they may actually prove to be quite a welcome addition. A recent study showed that 85% of consumers who did purchase wine products did not know how many calories were in an average glass of wine. Additionally, these studies have shed light on a possibly alarming trend: over 50% of those polled did not know the recommended daily guidelines for alcoholic consumption.
According to recent focus groups and extensive customer feedback, Sainsbury’s believes that the majority of their customers will find these new labels to be helpful and will approve of their use. When asked to comment on these development, Helen Buck, chair of Sainsbury’s responsible drinking research group, stated, “It is clear from our research that shoppers are confused regarding the calories in alcohol. We hope that by clearly displaying this information on the bottle, we’ll be able to help our customers to make responsible choices more easily.”
Sainsbury’s is currently one of several organisations that is working diligently to ensure that their food and beverage products are refreshed with new labeling. Both the United States and France have also recently announced a number of improvement to their own product labeling. Although improvements such as these are often seen to follow controversy, such as that which French authorities have recently had to weather regarding unauthorised horse meat, these new labels mark a new era of transparency and health-conscience behavior, a marked improvement regardless of its point of origin.
Sainsbury’s newest measures could be interpreted as a symbol of respect and awareness of their massive consumer base, many of whom purchase wine products here on a regular basis along with a wide variety of other alcoholic products.
