Consumers around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We believe food and drink producers have a responsibility to support that goal by empowering people to make informed choices about what and how they consume by providing comprehensive product information.
When it comes to alcohol, consumers also have the right to know what is in their drinks. As the world's leading spirits and beer producer, Diageo supports that view and committed in March 2015 to provide alcohol content and nutrition information per serve on pack on a global scale, thus becoming the first beverage alcohol producer to do so on a voluntary basis.
We spoke to over 1500 people around the world to understand consumers' needs and what they want to see on the labels. Of all the information that could be included on a limited space, alcohol content and nutritional facts per serve, along with brand information, were the most helpful.
Therefore we developed a set of easily understandable icons, which allow consumers to see at a glance what is in their drink. We believe that information on labels is the best and fastest way to inform consumers on what they are drinking.
We believe in providing this information per serve, as the 100ml only is misleading and doesn't represent the reality of what is in a drink (we are nevertheless providing the information also per 100ml in markets where this is legally required).
The information per serve also allows for better comparison between the different categories of alcohol beverages, and reinforces the fact that alcohol is alcohol.
Our redesigned labels are being implemented progressively on all of our global brands. We started with iconic Johnnie Walker Red Label, the best–selling Scotch whisky in the world, which has been revamped to include the new labels and which is now available since early April in most European markets. More brands will follow, aiming ultimately at covering our entire portfolio, including all the new products that we are developing.
In addition to the limited space on our labels, we also provide information to consumers through our global responsible drinking website, DRINKiQ.com, which includes nutrition, calorie and alcohol content information for all of our brands and useful tools such as a simple to use 'Drinks Calculator' to help people calculate and track their alcohol and calorie intake.
It also provides responsible drinking tips and advice on how food, age, size and gender affects how the body processes alcohol.
Diageo's purpose is celebrating life. With this labelling initiative, we are taking another step to help consumers celebrate life in an informed, balanced way. Better information leads to better choices, and better choices can lead to better lifestyle, and less alcohol misuse.