Calorie warning on Sainsbury’s labels

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is to put calorie-labelling on 20 of its own brand wines as it is revealed that 85% of Britons don’t know the calorie content of a glass of wine.

According to the Daily Mail, Sainsbury’s has said that the move will help consumers make “responsible” health choices.

The labels will tell shoppers the number of calories in one 125ml glass of wine after a Sainsbury’s survey found that 85% of people do not know the calorie count in a glass of wine and that 66% would like to know.

Sainsbury’s responsible drinking steering group chairwoman said: “We hope that by clearly displaying this information on the bottle, we’ll be able to help our customers to make responsible choices more easily.”

The move has been welcomed by the public health minister, Jane Ellison, who said: “The use of calorie labelling on alcoholic drinks is a key way the industry can help support responsible drinking.

“Clear labelling has an important part to play in helping customers make healthier choices.”

According to Drinkaware, a 250ml glass of wine of 13% abv can contain 228 calories, the equivalent of two fish fingers.

Interestingly, although speaking with regards the US, wine critic Robert Parker said in one of his predictions for 2014 that the government would begin pushing for wines to display their calorific content and ingredients on labels.