Start here.
A can must give five things, and the rest is the producer’s choice.
Read a can in this order: the name, the strength and volume, the allergen line, the base and the date. Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 makes the name, any allergen, the net quantity, the date where one applies, the storage conditions, the business and the strength mandatory for a drink above 1.2% ABV. The ingredients and the nutrition table are not on that list for such drinks, under Article 16(4).
What a canned cocktail label says and what it does not, from Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 and the Portman Group’s Code
Alc. 5.0% vol.
- What it tells you
- The strength, measured at 20°C, to one decimal place
- What it does not
- How sweet or how heavy the drink is
250ml
- What it tells you
- The net quantity, which with the strength gives the units
- What it does not
- The units themselves; the producer may leave them off
Contains milk
- What it tells you
- The allergen, where the can has no ingredients list
- What it does not
- Any other ingredient, or the amount of sugar
Best before
- What it tells you
- The producer’s estimate of how long quality holds
- What it does not
- A safety limit; the use by date does that job
Spirit drink
- What it tells you
- A drink of at least 15% ABV that fits the definition but no named category
- What it does not
- The base, the age or the quality
Gin, vodka or rum in the name
- What it tells you
- All the alcohol comes from that spirit, if the name is a compound term
- What it does not
- How much of the spirit is in the can
Units, pregnancy logo, drinkaware.co.uk
- What it tells you
- Voluntary labelling guidance from the industry
- What it does not
- That the law requires them
No ingredients list
- What it tells you
- The exemption in Article 16(4) applies
- What it does not
- That anything is hidden
Premium, craft, bar-quality, hand-crafted
- What it tells you
- Nothing in Article 9(1) gives these a meaning
- What it does not
- Anything
| On the can | What it tells you | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Alc. 5.0% vol. | The strength, measured at 20°C, to one decimal place | How sweet or how heavy the drink is |
| 250ml | The net quantity, which with the strength gives the units | The units themselves; the producer may leave them off |
| Contains milk | The allergen, where the can has no ingredients list | Any other ingredient, or the amount of sugar |
| Best before | The producer’s estimate of how long quality holds | A safety limit; the use by date does that job |
| Spirit drink | A drink of at least 15% ABV that fits the definition but no named category | The base, the age or the quality |
| Gin, vodka or rum in the name | All the alcohol comes from that spirit, if the name is a compound term | How much of the spirit is in the can |
| Units, pregnancy logo, drinkaware.co.uk | Voluntary labelling guidance from the industry | That the law requires them |
| No ingredients list | The exemption in Article 16(4) applies | That anything is hidden |
| Premium, craft, bar-quality, hand-crafted | Nothing in Article 9(1) gives these a meaning | Anything |
Read the legal name first, and let it say what is inside.
A spirit drink, under Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, has a minimum strength of 15% ABV. A can at 5% ABV is not one, so its name simply describes the drink. A bottled cocktail at 15% ABV or more may carry the name spirit drink, which Article 9 uses for drinks outside the defined categories.
A spirit named in the drink’s name carries a condition. Article 10(1) bars a category name in a compound term, or an allusion to it in presentation, unless all the alcohol comes from that spirit. A Gin and Tonic on a can should therefore have gin as its only alcohol. We have found no Trading Standards guidance applying the rule to cans, so treat it as the wording of the Article.
Article 9(7) bars words such as like, type, style and flavour beside a category name for a drink outside the defined categories. A name that borrows a spirit’s word that way is worth a second look.
Read the strength and the volume together, then count the units.
Annex XII sets the strength as a figure with at most one decimal place, then % vol., and the figure may be preceded by alcohol or alc. A label may also give % alc/vol. The figure is measured at 20°C, and most drinks above 1.2% ABV may differ from it by 0.3% vol either way.
The NHS’s sum turns the strength and the volume into units: ABV, multiplied by millilitres, divided by 1,000. A 250ml can at 5% ABV is 1.25 units. A 330ml can at 4% ABV is 1.3 units. A 500ml can at 7% ABV is 3.5 units.
Compare that with a bar serve. A Field Manual Gin and Tonic of 50ml of gin at 40% ABV is 2.0 units, and a 250ml can at 5% ABV is 1.25. The can is the lighter serve, but a large can at a higher strength can overtake it. ABV vs proof covers the scale, and the same label logic for spirits is in how to read a rum label and how to read a whisky label.
The NHS gives the Chief Medical Officers’ advice as no more than 14 units a week, taken regularly and spread over three or more days. A bottled cocktail at 20% ABV holds 14 units in 700ml, so one bottle is the whole week.
Read the allergen line, because it may be the only ingredient information.
Where there is no list of ingredients, Article 21(1) says the allergen appears as the word contains followed by its name from Annex II. The annex names cereals containing gluten, eggs, milk, nuts and sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10mg a kilogram or litre, among others. Sulphites are worth looking for on a wine-based spritz, and milk on a cream serve.
Emphasis helps. For a food with a list, Article 21(1)(b) asks for the allergen to stand out by font, style or background colour. The Franklin & Sons product page for a bottled cola shows it in practice: the ingredients print BARLEY MALT extract in capitals and end with Contains gluten. Our own page for that cola records the gluten for the same reason.
A mixer bottle has an ingredients list, and Annex VII says quinine used as a flavouring is named in it. That is why tonic water names quinine. Article 16(4) lifts the list from a canned gin and tonic, so the quinine line need not appear.
Failing to give the allergen information is an offence under regulation 10 of the Food Information Regulations 2014, enforced by food authorities under regulation 9. The allergen line is the one piece of ingredient information a can cannot leave off.
Read the base: a named spirit, a spirit drink or a fermented base.
The base is the alcohol the drink was made from, and the label may name it in the drink’s name, in the sales name or not at all. A named spirit means the alcohol is that spirit. The words spirit drink mean the product is at least 15% ABV. Neither, and the producer’s own website is the next place to look.
The base matters for duty as well. GOV.UK’s rates, last updated on 1 February 2026, list spirit-based products apart from beer, cider, wine and other fermented products. From 3.5% to 8.4% ABV the spirits and wine rate is £26.61 a litre of pure alcohol, the beer rate is £22.58 a litre and the rate for cider other than sparkling cider is £10.39 a litre. A 250ml can at 5% ABV holds 12.5ml of pure alcohol, so the difference is a few pence of duty per can before VAT.
Read the date and the storage line last.
Annex X gives the wording: best before with the day, or best before end with the month, followed by any storage conditions. Beverages containing 10% or more by volume of alcohol need no date, so a stirred bottle at that strength may carry none. A can weaker than that should.
A best before date is about quality. Article 24 keeps the use by date for foods that turn dangerous after a short time, and a canned cocktail does not use it. Read the storage line for what to do after opening, because the label is the producer’s own statement and no table of keeping times applies to a whole class of product.
Units, pregnancy logos and responsibility messages are voluntary.
The labelling annex of the Portman Group’s Code lists four elements: unit content per container, a pregnancy logo or message, a pointer to drinkaware.co.uk, and the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines. The annex says it is not part of the Code’s requirements and that failing to follow it is not a breach. Article 9(1) lists none of the four.
The Portman Group’s Code, which applies to any pre-packaged alcoholic drink above 0.5% ABV, also sets rules for a can’s design. Rule 3.1 says the alcoholic nature of a drink should be communicated with absolute clarity. Rule 3.2 says a drink should not give higher strength undue emphasis or have a particular appeal to under-18s.
A missing logo is therefore not a sign of anything. The units are in your hands: the sum above gives them from the two numbers Article 9(1) does list.
Words with no definition prove nothing.
Premium, craft, bar-quality and hand-crafted are not among the particulars Article 9(1) lists, and none of the legislation read here gives them a meaning. A can may use them without showing anything. A claim that carries weight gives you something to check, such as a strength to one decimal place, a named spirit or an allergen line.
The same holds for a missing ingredients list. Article 16(4) is the reason, not a sign that something is hidden. If you want a sugar figure or a full list, ask the producer or read its website. Nothing in the Article obliges it to publish one.