P1049 - Carbohydrate and sugar claims on alcoholic beverages

Published

On 13 August, changes to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) were gazetted to clarify that nutrition content claims about carbohydrate and sugar content can be made on alcoholic beverages.

What’s changing?

  • Sugar claims: Updates to Standard 1.2.7 to clarify that nutrition content claims about sugar can be made on alcoholic beverages. However, claims about individual sugars, such as fructose, or other components of carbohydrate are prohibited.

What’s not changing?

  • Carbohydrate claims: Remain permitted on alcoholic beverages, as long as they meet relevant conditions in the Code.
  • Prohibited claims: Health claims remain prohibited on alcoholic beverages, as do all other nutrition content claims except those about carbohydrate, sugar, energy and gluten.
  • Conditions for claims: Nutrition content claims must continue to meet relevant conditions in the Code and are subject to consumer and fair-trading laws.
  • Claim requirements: Existing nutrition information panel requirements remain if a nutrition content claim is made. 

Why this matters:

  • Clarity and certainty: Gives food businesses clarity on the types of nutrition content claims that can be made on alcoholic beverages.
  • Consistent enforcement: Helps food regulatory agencies interpret and apply the Code consistently across different products and claims.

How did we make our decision?

FSANZ prepared Proposal P1049 to clarify how the Code applies to nutrition content claims about carbohydrate and its components, like sugar, on foods and drinks that contain more than 1.15% alcohol by volume.

Work on the proposal was temporarily paused while we undertook preliminary work on energy labelling of alcoholic beverages. It recommenced in April 2022 to align with Proposal P1059 - Energy labelling on alcoholic beverages and to allow us to consider any potential synergies across alcohol labelling proposals.

The proposal was assessed under the general procedure in the FSANZ Act. We undertook 1 round of public consultation in July 2023.

Our final proposal and the Board’s decision were informed by the best available evidence, including consumer trends and market changes in the alcohol sector, the prevalence of carbohydrate and sugar claims, consumer research and testing, ministerial policy guidelines, international approaches, stakeholder views and cost–benefit analysis.

Read our full assessment and the approved changes:

View consultation papers (610KB) and submissions (36.7MB)

View the Administrative assessment report (84.2KB)