Australia and New Zealand to introduce mandatory labelling laws on risk of drinking for pregnant women
Alcohol producers in Australia and New Zealand will be forced to carry labelling warnings of the risks of drinking during pregnancy under new legislation.
The labels will be developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in consultation with the alcohol industry, and will include a pictogram and warning statement. Previously labelling has only been applied on a voluntary basis.
The Public Health Association of Australia CEO, Terry Slevin, commended the decision reached on Thursday afternoon. "It's important to provide Australian women who are pregnant, or considering pregnancy, with clear and accurate advice about the risks of drinking during pregnancy, with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) being the most significant," he said.
Alcohol Beverages Council executive director Nick Leggett said the majority of alcohol products already had warnings on their labels, but he vote meant a standard could be consistently applied.
“We support anything which reduces alcohol harm, but there’s a lot of evidence which says labelling, in itself, doesn’t chanage much.” And the success of labelling would need to be quantified, he added. “After a year or two when this has been fully implemented, we should be looking at the results.”
The move to mandatory labels had been "fully expected" by many in the alcohol industry, the Brewers Association of Australia CEO, Brett Heffernan, said. "Our members have been 100% compliant with the voluntarily labelling regime since 2014, applying the warning pictogram across every product they produce," he said.
The decision was significant, the CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, Michael Thorn said, adding that mandatory labelling would save lives. "This is a win for consumers and a critically important decision that will save lives and [help prevent] the pain that is caused as a result of what is a preventable but lifelong disability," he said.
Thorn said it was unclear when the labels would take effect, with work to be done on developing the labels and looking into the impact on business, but said he hoped they would be in place within 12 months.
At present only around half of all alcohol products do not carry pregnancy warmings.