Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Wine producers have vowed to fight a new Irish law demanding wine bottles be labelled with health warnings including risk of cancer and other fatal illnesses.Credit:AFR

Labels will be required to provide detailed warnings about calorie content of all booze and the risk of cancer,liver disease,and drinking while pregnant on bottled and canned alcoholic drinks. The warnings will only be included on products on sale in Ireland,not exports of Irish whiskey,Guinness or other alcoholic drinks.

The plan was signed into law by Irish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly on Monday and will take effect in May 2026,allowing for a three-year transition period for the market to adjust.

The labels,which are to be printed in red capital letters inTimes New Roman font,have provoked a storm of protest among major European producers – including Italy,France and Spain which account for 47 per cent of all wine bottles produced worldwide – and are working together to oppose the Irish legislation.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani decried the requirement to place cancer warnings on wine bottles as an “attack on the Mediterranean diet”,escalating a row over health labelling to a full diplomatic incident. Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida also pointed out that Italy – where wine is a diet staple – is the second most long-lived nation in the world,while Ireland struggles with alcoholism.

New mandatory health warning labels on alcohol in Ireland has enraged wine-producing nations.

The World Health Organisation has said that there is “no safe amount” of alcohol consumption that does not affect health. That is part of the Irish government’s rationale to require alcoholic drink producers to affix warning labels to inform consumers of the risks.

More than 10 countries,including Britain,the United States,New Zealand,Mexico and Cuba,have already lodged complaints with the WTO and the move will be discussed at its next Technical Barriers to Trade committee meeting on June 21. The Australian government has raised questions about the proposed system directly with Ireland under international trade rules.

Thirteen European Union states have raised their concerns with the European Commission,and lobby groups have called for Brussels to open infringement proceedings against Dublin for breaching EU law.

Rachel Triggs,the head of market access at Wine Australia – the statutory corporation that promotes and regulates the industry – said while it was usual for individual countries to implement bespoke requirements to promote public health,it was essential that labelling requirements be “proportionate to risk,and not be more trade-restrictive than necessary”.

She said the industry had concerns the measure had the potential to undermine the principle of the European single market by introducing an alcohol-labelling system that was inconsistent with the requirements of other EU member states and were “unnecessarily trade-restrictive”.

“Ensuring there is consistency in labelling between Australia,Ireland,and other EU member states is critical,” she said.

One-quarter of member nations of the WHO have some form of health warning label on alcoholic drinks,but only South Korea currently has a warning linking alcohol to cancer risk. Other countries include partial warnings,for example on drinking while pregnant,or alcohol’s link to cancer,but Ireland says none provide such wide-ranging information about the risks on the label.

Donnelly said that one in 20 deaths in Ireland was linked to alcohol and even low levels of alcohol consumption were linked to 2.4 per cent of all cancer cases,a wide range of other health issues and high costs of medical care.

“This law is designed to give all of us as consumers a better understanding of the alcohol content and health risks associated with consuming alcohol. With that information,we can make an informed decision about our own alcohol consumption,” Donnelly said,pointing out that Ireland would be the first country to introduce such health labels.

The Irish public is overwhelmingly in favour of the measures,with a poll inThe Irish Times suggesting 72 per cent of consumers agreeing that it is their right to be informed in advertising about the risks that alcohol use poses to public health.

Get a note directly from our foreigncorrespondentson what’s making headlines around the world.Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here

License this article