RTDs alcohol content reduced - Common sense prevails

The Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) welcomed today’s commitment by Lion Nathan to reduce the alcohol content of Ready to Drinks (RTDs) to two standard drinks in their products.

ADCA Chief Executive Officer, David Templeman, believes that although this is a positive step in reducing the impact of the misuse of alcohol in our community more must be done.

“These RTDs are really a recipe for disaster, particularly among young people to whom they are often marketed,” said Mr Templeman.

ADCA supports moves to ban RTDs altogether, but is pleased that Lion Nathan are at least willing to make it clearer to their customers the levels of alcohol they are consuming.

“It is so confusing to people to have varying levels of alcohol in different products, and hopefully this move by Lion Nathan will ensure that people consuming RTDs take a more responsible approach to how many containers they consume,” said Mr Templeman.

ADCA is also calling on Lion Nathan and others in the alcohol industry to take notice of Australian community attitudes which support calls to change the current system of warnings, labeling, marketing and advertising of alcohol products.

“Its high time that the alcohol industry started to get involved with looking at the dangers and the harms involved with the misuse of their products,” he added.

ADCA whole heartedly supports the Federal Government’s National Binge Drinking Strategy and is involved in the current Senate Inquiry to examine Australia’s growing alcohol toll.

“It’s time the alcohol industry became serious about their response to the growing community concern about the levels of binge drinking in our culture.” Mr Templeman said.

“They need to get behind efforts to reduce the harm the misuse of their products cause – by lending their support to efforts to educate the community and better regulate the product branding, marketing and promotion of alcohol products,” he added.

20 March 2008