P1049 - Carbohydrate and sugar claims on alcoholic beverages

Published

On 25 June 2025, the FSANZ Board approved changes to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) to clarify that nutrition content claims about carbohydrate and sugar content can be made on alcoholic beverages.

 

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)