<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/30/half-of-pre-mixed-alcohol-features-nutritional-claims-as-industry-targets-young-australians-study-finds>
"The alcohol industry is targeting health-conscious younger Australians with
nutritional claims such as “low calorie”, “low sugar” and “gluten free”
appearing on half of pre-mixed alcoholic drinks, according to new research.
In the first study to assess how frequently health claims are used by the
alcohol industry, researchers analysed 491 pre-mixed products found in three
major retailers (Dan Murphy’s, Liquorland, BWS) in Sydney.
They found the most common claims related to “naturalness” (32%), calories
(32%), sugar content (31%), gluten (23%), carbs (20%) and a product being vegan
(13%).
Led by the George Institute for Global Health, the study found 52% of products
made at least one of these nutrition-related claims, despite research showing
alcohol is inherently unhealthy.
The nutrition claims appeared on 96% of hard seltzers, which are specifically
marketed at younger drinkers, with an average of 3.4 nutrition-related claims
on those products.
The study, published on Friday in the
Australian and New Zealand Journal of
Public Health, found that this “indicates that producers are intensively using
these claims to market these products as healthy options”.
The lead author of the study, George Institute food and alcohol researcher
Bella Sträuli, said the alcohol industry was “acutely aware” that alcohol
consumption was declining, particularly among increasingly health-conscious
younger people. She said it was employing strategies to increase the perceived
healthiness of these products in an attempt to rejuvenate sales."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
