From next month beer bottles will start to carry a health warning in the latest move by the brewing industry to try to curb Britain's growing appetite for binge drinking.

Brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle, which makes Kronenbourg and Foster's, is pioneering the move, placing a label calling for responsible drinking on bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale. Similar notices will appear on the rest of its portfolio of brands over the next few months.

Coors, maker of Britain's best selling lager Carling, is also introducing a responsible drinking message on its cans saying: "Enjoy Carling, take it easy". The new cans will appear in stores over the next few weeks. A Scottish & Newcastle spokeswoman said the warning was designed as "a responsible drinking message. The intent is to educate people about their intake."

Rosie Brocklehurst from Addaction, the national alcohol and drug treatment charity, welcomed Scottish & Newcastle's move but warned that the industry still has more to do in Britain's fight against alcohol abuse. "Some big players have been guilty of irresponsible marketing, and of developing alcopops, making vast profits from these tactics, and fanned the binge drinking culture in the process.

Coors believes the makers of alcoholic beverages can get a responsible drinking message across to drinkers in the way that government cannot.

"Our brands can talk more like a friend or older brother," said a spokesman. "While government is more like a headteacher saying: 'you shall not do this'."