Alcohol Units Guide

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Title – Alcohol Units Guide
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 19th May 2008

Finally the old ‘Units Guides’ have been updated to make it easier to understand the effect that consumption of different drinks of different strengths have and the sensible drinking limits that correspond.

The new unit guides are more complicated by the very nature of the evolving drinks trade. Where once you simply had standard beer, premium beer, wine and spirits, you now have variants within these categories that need to be accounted for. The introduction of alcopops, different alcohol by volumes and serving sizes has made it more complicated to work out how many units people are consuming, but it is not rocket science and the ‘Units Guide’ is a great help.

The important step now in responsible alcohol retailing is to educate staff and customers alike. These two are intrinsically linked, we would like to see every person selling alcohol familiar with the unit guide and able to help customers by informing them when requested.

Should this step frighten the licensed retail sector? Not if it is done in the right way, we need to educate and not to dictate. We need to realise that people don’t go to pubs and shops simply for the alcohol, we need to take the peer pressure out of alcohol consumption. The fact is, that if our customers can feel equally comfortable in the consumption of non alcoholic drinks and hot drinks, the retailer’s margins can improve alongside their social responsibilities.

We run the portfolio of BIIAB licensed retail courses including the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH), the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR), The National Certificate for Licensees – Drugs Awareness (NCLDA) as well as Conflict Management and Resolution courses (CMR) and security industry training. Our services will help you develop your staff to understand the positive impact responsible alcohol retailing can have on your business.

Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk