Professor Carol Bower
Following strong evidence and lobbying by Telethon Kids Institute researchers, along with others including the Western Australian Government, labels to warn women about the risks of drinking during pregnancy are to become mandatory on all alcohol sold in Australia and New Zealand within two years.
Leading Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) researcher Professor Carol Bower, who was instrumental in presenting evidence to support the decision, said mandatory labelling was part of multiple actions required to reduce birth defects caused by prenatal alcohol use.
“This is one important step in a suite of health promotion and public health approaches because this is a product that actually causes birth defects,” she said. “Women ought to be given that information and there is no more immediate place than on the product.”
In early 2018, the Food Regulation Standards Committee invited Professor Bower to make a submission as a public health stakeholder to the targeted consultation regarding policy options for pregnancy warning labels on packaged alcoholic beverages.
Professor Bower, along with Dr Roslyn Giglia and Dr Martyn Symons, made the submission on behalf of the Institute and the FASD Research Australia Centre of Research Excellence, of which Professor Bower is Director. Their review found a five-year trial of voluntary labelling since 2011 had been unsuccessful, with testing revealing that labels were hard to read and had unclear messages that could be easily misinterpreted to mean it was okay to consume alcohol during pregnancy.
In October 2018, health ministers around Australia, with strong support from WA Health Minister Roger Cook, agreed to introduce mandatory labelling at a meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) are now developing consistent labels and standardised messages, with consumer testing and input from the researchers, industry and public health organisations. These are expected to be ready by the end of 2019.
“This is a major win for clarity – every alcohol product will have the same message on the bottle and packaging, with specifications to the size, colour and wording so there will be consistency,” said Professor Bower.
Following a ‘wash-in’ period of 12 months to allow time for existing alcohol product to leave the shelves and industry to work to get the new labels on, it is expected that all alcohol will carry the new labelling by 2020.
“Once in place, the mandatory labelling needs to be evaluated to determine if women are seeing the labels and clearly understanding why not drinking alcohol in pregnancy is the safest option,” Professor Bower said.
“We are concerned to ensure there is good evidence supporting what the message is and then to find out how well it has been seen and taken note of.”