Antigonish craft brewery testing health warning labels on beer cans

Karsten Greene · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 12, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 12

Most radical are acquainted with the informing labels connected cigaret packages. But a task successful Antigonish, N.S., is piloting however akin labels could enactment for alcoholic beverages.

In hopes of expanding consciousness of the wellness risks associated with intoxicant consumption, a researcher astatine St. Francis Xavier University has teamed up with a section trade brewery to trial informing labels connected brew cans.

Kara Thompson, probe seat successful substance usage argumentation and prevention astatine St. FX, is starring the labelling task successful collaboration with Candid Brewing Company successful Antigonish.

"This is the past signifier of the project where we're really implementing them successful a real-world mounting and seeing however consumers, whether consumers announcement them, how they recognize them and however they usage them erstwhile they're purchasing and consuming alcohol," Thompson told Information Morning Nova Scotia big Portia Clark.

The labels, rolling retired connected prime Candid products implicit the adjacent respective months, pass consumers of the fig of modular drinks per instrumentality and alcohol's transportation to cancer.

They besides include information connected Canada's caller nationalist guidance connected intoxicant and health, which says 3 to six drinks a week increases the hazard of processing definite cancers, including colorectal and bosom cancer, and much than 7 drinks a week besides increases the hazard of bosom illness and stroke.

Bryan Druhan, co-owner of Candid Brewing, said helium was intrigued to beryllium portion of a task breaking caller crushed successful Nova Scotia.

"It's an absorbing archetypal step," helium told Information Morning Nova Scotia. "It's bully to beryllium retired up of it. It's surely happened successful different jurisdictions, so having a accidental to beryllium successful collaboration and person immoderate input was, I think, invaluable truthful we were blessed to leap astatine the opportunity."

Druhan said he views the labels arsenic being important to help consumers marque informed decisions.

"I think, you know, consumers are smart," helium said. "They marque choices each day, whether it's astir intoxicant oregon different products they are buying. So we conscionable looked astatine it arsenic an accidental to springiness our consumers much information."

The pilot will show the reaction of consumers who were initially recruited and surveyed arsenic portion of information postulation anterior to the motorboat of the labels, Thompson said.

"The labels volition launch for the adjacent four months oregon truthful and past we'll travel up with those aforesaid radical to measure things similar has their knowledge of the nexus betwixt intoxicant and crab changed, is their understanding of a modular portion better, person they noticed the statement and talked astir the statement with peers."

Thompson said accusation successful Nova Scotia about the wellness risks of alcohol is sorely lacking. 

"We haven't done a precise bully occupation successful this state astir communicating thing astir intoxicant and alcohol-related risks," she said. 

"Less than 50 per cent of Atlantic Canadians are adjacent alert that intoxicant and crab are linked oregon that intoxicant is simply a carcinogen."

She said the provincial authorities should instrumentality much of an inaugural successful educating the nationalist astir Canada's drinking guidelines, pointing to provinces specified arsenic New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island that person launched wide-scale nationalist wellness campaigns.