EU backs off cancer warning on wine labels

The EU has backed away from increased cancer risk warning labels on wine in a vote this week.

If voting had passed the motion, producers would have been required to add a cancer warning to wine labels and this could have dramatically altered the subsidies wineries receive.

The original resolution referred to World Health Organisation advice that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption to prevent cancer. However ferocious lobbying by French winemakers means the wording has changed to harmful alcohol consumption should be seen as a risk.

The WHO has warned that cancer was the leading cause of alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016. It had a share of 29 per cent of deaths in Europe, followed by liver cirrhosis (20 per cent , cardiovascular diseases (19 per cent) and injuries (18 per cent). Those figures include EU countries and the UK, Norway and Switzerland.