Pregnancy warning labels on alcoholic drinks

New Zealand Food Safety has reminded NZ food businesses that from 1 August 2023, a 'pregnancy warning label' must be included on packaged alcoholic drinks with more than 1.15% alc/vol that are for retail sale, except when the alcoholic drink is packaged in the presence of the purchaser.

Alcoholic drinks packaged and labelled before 1 August 2023 are allowed to be sold without a pregnancy warning label.

Note that pregnancy warning labels on corrugated cardboard packaging used for multiple individual units of alcoholic drinks are permitted to be in a single colour on a contrasting background when a post-print process is used. This requirement applies from 2 February 2024.

The pregnancy warning label rules must be followed exactly according to prescribed label design and requirements (colour, size of font and label). More information about these rules is available as a downloadable file here.

Image credit: iStock.com/Andrey Zhuravlev