🍷 Health warning label

A health warning label is a sign or text about the harm of alcohol. Most often it warns pregnant women and drivers. It may be a pictogram of a crossed-out pregnant woman or a written message.

Requirements depend on the country. In France the pregnancy pictogram has been mandatory since 2007. In the United States a warning about pregnancy and driving has been on bottles since 1989. In the European Union wine rules are set by the general regulation on agricultural markets (1308/2013), but health and labelling are largely left to individual countries. There is still no single EU-wide health message for wine, although producers must state the ingredients and energy value.

The warning is tied to the label as a whole and to the topic of pregnancy and alcohol: it is mainly for that reason that the pictogram was introduced. Doctors advise not drinking alcohol during pregnancy because no safe amount has been established.