Alcohol’s hidden calories: product labels could help fight obesity in South Africa

South Africa is grappling with an obesity crisis. Nearly half of adults are overweight or obese. Public discussion often focuses on ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks as reasons for weight gain. But there’s another source of calories that’s often overlooked: alcoholic drinks. Alcohol contains nearly twice as much energy per gram as carbohydrates or protein. Many alcoholic beverages also contain leftover sugars and other carbohydrates that were not fully converted into alcohol during fermentation. These contribute extra calories on top of those supplied by the alcohol itself. In Australia, for example, a 330ml bottle of cider was shown to contain as much as 724kJ of energy. This is more than twice the energy content of the average sugar-sweetened soft drink in South Africa. Drinking may also increase appetite and encourage the consumption of high-calorie foods. Access to clear and accurate nutritional information helps consumers make informed choices about their diets. This is key, whether they’re managing their weight, reducing sugar intake or living with conditions like diabetes. Nutrition labels are one way to inform those choices. Most packaged foods are required to have detailed nutrition labels. But alcohol is in a unique regulatory position in South Africa – the rules that apply are mostly under the Liquor Products Act. Manufacturers generally have to disclose their alcohol by volume (ABV) or the percentage of alcohol in the beverage. Information such as calorie content, sugar levels, carbohydrates or ingredients is often not disclosed. My colleagues and I are researchers who study the interactions between nutrition policy, food environments and chronic disease risk in South Africa. We recognise the importance of nutritional labelling. We recently analysed the nutrition content information provided online for more than 3,500 alcoholic beverages sold by major South African retailers. These included beers, wines, spirits and ready-to-drink beverages. We found a wide information gap. Most products disclosed alcohol by volume. Information on calories, sugars, carbohydrates and ingredients was rarely available. Without this information, it becomes far more difficult to understand how specific products contribute to overall dietary intake. What we found: the transparency gap Only about one in three products disclosed sugar content. Information on energy, carbohydrates, protein, fat, fibre and sodium was available for fewer than 3% of products. Ingredient lists were disclosed for only a small minority. In practice, this means that consumers shopping online can usually see how much alcohol a beverage contains. But other nutritional information or ingredients are seldom available. Manufacturers are not legally required to put this information on alcohol labels. The situation is unlikely to be much different for consumers shopping in stores. Levels of disclosure also varied across beverage categories. Beers and wines generally provided more information than other products. Spirits and ready-to-drink beverages were among the least transparent. This is despite some of these products containing substantial amounts of sugar and other energy-contributing ingredients. But disclosure remained limited overall. The typical alcoholic beverage disclosed only a single piece of nutritional information: its alcohol content. International moves towards transparency South Africa is not alone in grappling with the question of how much nutritional information should be provided for alcoholic drinks. A growing number of countries are moving towards greater transparency. The approaches differ between countries. But they recognise that alcohol is not only a psychoactive substance. It’s also a contributor to dietary energy intake and noncommunicable diseases. The European Union introduced reforms in 2023 that require wines to provide ingredient lists and nutritional information. These can either be on the product itself or through electronic tools such as QR codes. Australia and New Zealand have approved mandatory energy labelling for alcoholic drinks. Ireland is introducing comprehensive alcohol labelling requirements, including health warnings and nutritional information. Chile has similarly extended its front-of-package warning system to alcoholic beverages. These developments show that improved transparency is feasible and is being seen as an important part of public health policy. These policies all aim to give consumers information to help them understand the nutritional content and potential health implications of alcoholic beverages. Improving nutritional transparency for alcohol South Africa has an opportunity to build on emerging international practice. It also has the chance to close a gap in the rules that leaves consumers in the dark. A full nutrition information panel may not be necessary for every product. But sharing information about nutrition has to be done carefully. Labels that emphasise claims such as “low sugar” or “low carbohydrate” may lead consumers to perceive certain products as healthy when they aren’t. Any future labelling requirements should clearly communicate alcohol-related health risks and be aligned with broader public health objectives. South Africans deserve the same level of transparency for alcoholic beverages that is increasingly expected for other foods and drinks. The lack of nutritional disclosure also has implications beyond individual consumer choice. Without standardised reporting requirements, researchers and policymakers have limited information about the nutritional content of alcoholic beverages available on the market. This makes it more difficult to monitor population exposure to these nutrients, and challenging to develop evidence-based public health policies.