Diageo arms consumers with nutritional, alcohol information about its brands

With the launch of its newly revised DrinkiQ.com, Diageo, the parent company of Guinness Nigeria, is advancing its commitment to give consumers greater transparency and help them to make more informed choices about alcohol as part of a balanced lifestyle. To this end, the company has significantly enhanced the nutrition, calorie and alcohol content information available about all its brands. This includes a breakdown of calories, carbohydrates and protein as well as, for the first time, detailing saturated fat, sugar, caffeine and sodium content. This valuable new information is now available on its responsible drinking website, DrinkiQ.com.

The website includes useful new tools such as a simple to use ‘Drinks Calculator’, to help people calculate and track their alcohol and calorie intake. It also provides responsible drinking tips and advice on how food, age, size and gender affects how the body processes alcohol, alongside the enhanced ‘What’s in your Drink’ tool.

The new move builds on Diageo’s global commitment in March 2015 to start voluntarily providing nutrition and alcohol content information per standardised serving on all its brands. In the first move to fulfil this commitment, the first shipment of Crown Royal labelled with macronutrient and calorie information was released in the US in October 2015, a statement from the company said.

Carolyn Panzer, Alcohol in Society Director, Diageo said in the statement:“As people become more and more interested in their diet and lifestyle choices, we need to play our part. We know that consumers want nutritional information about what they drink – just as they do with the foods they eat; they also want a clear and easy way to know how much alcohol they are drinking. We believe passionately in helping people to understand what’s in their drink and to make informed choices about drinking or not drinking. Alcohol is alcohol. There is no drink of moderation – only a practice of moderation.”

Also speaking, Sesan Sobowale, Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria said, “We are proud of the approach we have taken, over decades, to promote responsible alcohol consumption and help tackle harmful drinking. As part of our ambition to be leaders in addressing alcohol in society, we have set ourselves goals beyond our industry-wide commitments in our 2020 Sustainability and Responsibility targets for alcohol. Our revamped and relaunched DrinkiQ keeps us on track as we work towards the attainment of our sustainability and responsibility targets.

DANIEL OBI