Objective: To examine the extent of nutrition-related claims on ready-to-drink (RTD) alcohol products to provide insights into the types and prevalence of claims across the category.
Methods: Product type, alcohol content, and presence/type of nutrition-related claims (n=491) information was collected, March-May 2022. Chi-square analyses with pairwise z-tests were used to identify differences in claim prevalence by product type. Spearman's correlation was used to assess the relationship between alcohol content and number of claims.
Results: Approximately half (52%) of RTDs displayed at least one claim, with the most common claims referring to naturalness (32%), sugar- (31%), and energy-content (32%). Hard seltzers displayed the most claims (96%, M=3.4 claims/product, SD=1.6). There was a moderate negative correlation between alcohol content and number of claims (r =-.43, p<.001).
Conclusion: Results show the extensive use of nutrition-related claims on RTDs in Australia, particularly for hard seltzers.
Implications for public health: Nutrition-related claims have the potential to mislead consumers about the healthiness of alcohol products and more stringent regulation of nutrition-related claims is needed.
Keywords: alcohol; labelling; nutrition claims; prevention; ready-to-drink products.
Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.