Alcohol producers quietly lower health labelling standard
Alcohol producers have quietly adopted a lower standard for consumer health information on labels, no longer committing to mention the official weekly guidelines for low-risk consumption.
“We are greatly disappointed that the British alcohol industry is setting their bar lower and lower,” says Mariann Skar of Eurocare, a European consortium hoping to cut alcohol harm. But she says it is “not surprising” given its stiff resistance to minimum pricing and other measures.
The low-key move was coordinated by Portman Group, which coordinates the UK alcohol industry’s efforts to minimise problems. Skar says it should follow the lead of Brewers of Europe, a European beer suppliers consortium implementing a voluntary health labelling scheme.
It is a “massive policy change”, according to another seasoned observer. In practice, however, alcohol producers have long ignored their undertaking to include the guideline maximum, with only one label in 300 including it earlier this year.
The lower standard emerged from consultation with four industry bodies: the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), the National Association of Cider Makers (NACM), the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).
The problem is that cider labels are too small to include the official recommendation of keeping under 14 units a week to minimise risk, said the NACM. An optional label which mentions it contains 17 words compared to the six words used in ones which do not.
“We feel this is a balanced approach that gives producers the option of printing the guidelines on product labels or signalling ongoing support for health and lifestyle information by directing consumers to the Drinkaware website,” said the BBPA. Drinkaware is funded by alcohol producers and criticised for downplaying risks.
“Labelling remains an important way to sign-post consumers to a greater variety information in a way that is fit for purpose and relevant to how people now consume information,” said Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, explaining the move online.
Around 80% of UK consumers are dissatisfied with the amount of information provided on the labels of alcoholic drinks according to the World Health Organisation (see chart). ■
[summary] Alcohol chapter of the Scottish Health Survey (2016) | National Statistics
- The proportion of adults in Scotland drinking above the recommended maximum of 14 units per week fell from 34% in 2003 to 25% in 2013 and has stayed at a similar level since (25% in 2014 and 26% in 2015 and 2016).
- Male drinkers were twice as likely to drink above the recommended maximum of 14 units a week than female drinkers.
- The percentage of adults reporting that they do not drink alcohol increased significantly from 11% in 2003 to 16% in 2013, and has settled at that level since.
- More adults reported not drinking alcohol in the most deprived areas (26%) than the least deprived areas (11%) (age-standardised).
- Those in the least deprived areas drank on more days on average (2.9 days) than those in the most deprived areas (2.3 days).
- Male drinkers consumed significantly more alcohol on their heaviest drinking day than female drinkers in 2015/2016 combined (8.4 units compared with 5.9 units respectively).
- The average number of units of alcohol consumed by adults on their heaviest drinking day fell from 7.7 units in 2003 to 6.9 units in 2013, and has remained at a broadly similar level since then (7.3 units in 2016).
- Drinkers aged 75 and over consumed less alcohol at one time, but drank with greater frequency, on average, than younger drinkers who tended to consume greater volumes of alcohol in fewer drinking sessions.
- The proportion of adults who drank on more than 5 days in the last week has risen after a period of decline.
Gain freedom: How to escape your Facebook feed
Processing the jumbled deluge of content on the typical Facebook feed can cause distraction, cognitive overload and intermittent alarm from its cack-handed delivery of serious news. But this formidable mental challenge is made tricky to escape.
Social media’s commercial goal is to gain and hold our attention for long periods rather than efficiently inform, a role it is unable to perform. The Facebook feed is the crowning achievement of the sector, being the most effective technique ever for distracting nosy animals like us.
We find it almost impossible to stop looking at it, just as we find it hard to resist looking through an open doorway as we pass.
Facebook’s master stroke was to pump-prime our feeds by making it the default to follow people at the same time as we add them. This means it is time-consuming and (superficially) socially awkward for us to reverse the compliment, so we tend not to bother.
People even abandon Facebook as a way to avoid the dilemma, but jumping ship carries a cost because Facebook is a useful personal address book, directory and messaging service. The most targeted way to cure Facebook-feed overload is to disable the feed alone, not to desert the platform.
Thankfully, it is possible to completely disable the Facebook feed and any ill-feeling for doing so is misplaced. Outside Facebookland it has long been accepted people should opt-in for updates rather opt out of them. Facebook should be no exception.
It could take a while to readjust to a feed-free life, but Facebook is not nearly as much of a time-sponge without it. And unhooked from the feed you can also choose when to consume serious news, rather than leaving yourself open to unsettling updates from across the planet at any second.
You are not left “out in the cold” this way either. You can still visit contacts’ Facebook pages, and send and receive personal messages. Disabling your Facebook feed transforms the site from chaotic information maelstrom to convivial blog community, message service and directory.
Of course, there are billions of people who are perfectly happy with their Facebook feeds as they are and I do not begrudge them a moment of enjoyment. I had many laughs and learned a lot from mine — not least my limits — before finally finding a way to turn it off.
Instant relief
You can now instantly block the feed on a PC: in Chrome install the News Feed Eradicator or the Safari equivalent; Firefox, meanwhile, has Kill FB Feed.
On mobile phones uninstalling the app and not visiting the site seems to be the only way.
Feed freedom
Facebook makes it difficult to leave the feed more permanently, but it is possible:
(1) Unfollow contacts: You can do this in one go using this app, being careful to unfollow rather than to unfriend.
(2) Unlike pages: This is more painstaking and has to be done one like at a time. Visit your homepage and click “View activity log” at the bottom right of your cover picture and on the left-hand-side click “Likes” and go through them.
(3) Regulate groups: Some groups can be very rewarding, others less so. For the latter go to “Home”, click on “Groups” on the left-hand-side and click “Edit notification settings” or “Leave group” accordingly.
After a lot of arduous clicking, the end result should be as below, saying simply “No posts to show. Find Friends.” One last type of notification remains, most stubbornly on mobile: people’s birthdays. ■
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Alcohol-free beer accepted in beer-drinking Germany
Relatively few people think it is embarrassing to drink alcohol-free beer in beer-drinking Germany compared to France, Italy, Poland and Spain, where wine and spirits are more popular.
Only 9% of Germans thought it was embarrassing to be caught in possession of an alcohol-free beer, compared to 14% of French, 19% of Italians, 15% of Spanish and 17% of Poles, according to the survey (see chart).
The majority of people did not think it was embarrassing in all five countries, and more than one-in-five had no opinion either way. There are currently no equivalent figures for English-speaking countries.
Discreetly drinking alcohol-free beer, or other lookalike drinks, can be a good way to avoid social pressure to drink alcohol. ■