Health minister Jo Churchill chaired a meeting with alcohol industry representatives which began exploring how uptake of low-alcohol drinks might help prevent health problems on Monday.
“The roundtable was made up of representatives from the alcohol industry, trade bodies, consumer groups and retailers,” said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The health department said the meeting “kickstarted discussions” on proposals first outlined in the Prevention Green Paper of summer 2019.
The paper suggested increasing the availability of low-alcohol products by 2025 and reviewing evidence on raising the threshold for officially using the term “alcohol-free” to 0.5% from 0.05%.
Portman Group (PG), which represents large alcohol producers and retailers, said yesterday it “co-hosted” the meeting.
At the sam e time released a poll highlighting role its members could play in weaning their customers off alcohol, noting a quarter of alcohol drinkers are regular consumers of low-alcohol drinks.
“Work will continue on developing proposals including a further meeting with public health organisations,” said the DHSC.
Many in public health complain of a chronic lack of resources for treatment services, low alcohol prices and high levels availability and advertising. ■