To the Editor: In Australia, the packaging of alcoholic beverages, unlike that of non-alcoholic beverages, is not required to display a list of ingredients or nutritional information, such as the amount of sugar, calories, and any preservatives contained in the drink.1 It is possible that consumers, especially some population groups such as weight-conscious young women, might be less inclined to drink as much alcohol if they knew the calorie content of what they were consuming. There has been no published research on whether Australian consumers want this information.
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- 1. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. User guides to the new Food Standards Code. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/thecode/assistanceforindustry/userguides (accessed Jul 2007).
- 2. National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian alcohol guidelines: health risks and benefits. Canberra: NHMRC, 2001.
- 3. Kaskutas LA. Interpretations of risk: the use of scientific information in the development of the alcohol warning label policy. Int J Addict 1995; 30: 1519-1548.
- 4. Babor T, Caetano R, Casswell S, et al. Alcohol: no ordinary commodity. Research and public policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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Our study was funded by Healthway, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation. We are grateful to Professor John Langley for comments on a draft.