Posted: April 9, 2020
People drink less in restaurants when wine is served with smaller glasses. Would people also drink less from smaller bottles of wine? The results of the first study to address this suggests that consuming wine at home from 50cl bottles – compared with the usual 75cl bottles – could reduce consumption by 4.5%.
During two 14-day study periods, 166 households that drank wine regularly purchased a pre-set volume of wine – based on their usual weekly consumption – in either 75cl or 50cl bottles, in randomised order.
50cl bottles – compared with 75cl bottles – reduced the amount of wine drunk by 4.5% and slowed the rate of consumption by about 6%.
These findings suggest that smaller bottles could help reduce wine consumption at home. Increasing the availability and relative affordability of 50cl bottles of wine has the potential to contribute to policies for reducing alcohol consumption.
To read the findings of the study in full, click here.
Reference
Codling S*, Mantzari E*, Sexton O, Fuller G, Pechey R, Hollands G.H., Pilling M, Marteau T.M. (2020) Impact of bottle size on in-home consumption of wine: a randomised controlled cross-over trial. Addiction doi.org/10.1111/add.15042.
*joint first authors
