As of July 31, 2023, all beverages with an ABV of more than 1.15% must bear a pregnancy warning label in accordance with the rigorous size, format, colour, and font criteria.
Australia and New Zealand have begun enforcing mandatory pregnancy warning on all alcoholic beverages, which will also apply to imports. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) first revealed in 2019 that it was considering requiring pregnancy warning labels on alcoholic products.
All packaged and individual alcoholic drink products with more than 1.15% ABV for retail sale [will be needed] to comply with pregnancy warning labelling regulations beginning July 31, 2023.
It means that imported alcoholic beverages intended for retail sale must also bear the relevant warning statement unless the imported beverage will be branded with the statement (post border) before being sold.
The initial proposal stated that ‘Any amount of alcohol can harm your baby’ and applied to all alcoholic beverages with 0.5% ABV alcohol content, but this was later changed to ‘Alcohol can cause lifelong harm to your baby’ and alcoholic beverages with 1.15% ABV after much debate and industry backlash.
The Australian alcoholic beverages sector has maintained that there is already a ‘working and effective’ labelling scheme in place, with no need for legislation to govern it, with major players such as Alcohol Beverages Australia (ABA) and Australian Grape and Wine previously submitting protests against the move.
Nonetheless, FSANZ has moved forward with the transition to and enforcement of the alcohol pregnancy warning label during the last three years. As of July 31, 2023, all beverages with an ABV of more than 1.15% must bear the label in accordance with the rigorous size, format, colour, and font criteria.
“The pregnancy warning label must be an image containing the pregnancy warning pictogram (image above) with a black pregnant silhouette and red circle and strikethrough, the signal words’ PREGNANCY WARNING’ in red coloured capital letters, and the statement ‘Alcohol can cause lifelong harm to your baby’ in black letters, all within a border,” FSANZ stated via a formal statement.
“There are minimum sizes that manufacturers must adhere to; for instance, if the product is between 200ml and 800 ml, the pictogram must be a minimum of 6mm in diameter, the signal wording minimum of 2.1mm, and the statement itself a minimum of 1.6mm.
“Larger packages will correspondingly need to carry pregnancy warning labels in larger sizes, whereas packaging below 200ml can carry a minimum 8mm pregnancy warning pictogram.
There must also be a minimum of 3mm clear spacing all around the pregnancy warning label [to ensure visibility].”
The three components of the approved pregnancy warning label include:
- a pregnancy warning pictogram (silhouette logo)
- the signal words’ PREGNANCY WARNING,’ and
- the statement ‘Alcohol can cause lifelong harm to your baby.’
Each component has prescribed colour requirements, and the label must be contained within a border, as depicted above. The size of each component is prescribed and depends on package volume.
Alcoholic beverage manufacturers have also been encouraged to refer to the detailed guidance material developed by FSANZ here to get their labelling accurately applied, given there has been some degree of confusion across the transition period.
Downloadable versions of the warning label are now available to download from the FSANZ website here: www.foodstandards.gov.au/industry/labelling/Pages/pregnancy-warning-labels-downloadable-files.aspx
Image by Kamran Aydinov on Freepik
