Although alcohol negatively affects various health outcomes, awareness about the health risks of alcohol remains relatively low. WHO recommends labelling alcoholic beverages to increase awareness. Current labelling practices across countries are not standardized as they are with medicine, food products and soft drinks. The effect of health warnings labels is optimized when reinforced by other policies that curb alcohol consumption.

Experimental studies indicate that warning labels can impact self-reported intention to reduce alcohol consumption. Although health warning labels are talked about as one policy approach to curb the consumption of alcohol, they can be implemented and evaluated in various ways that can affect whether they can be considered effective.