What does alcohol-free mean? Low and no alcohol drinks on a UK label

The Department of Health and Social Care published its low-alcohol descriptors guidance on 13 December 2018. It sets out how the government expects drinks of 1.2% ABV or below to be described. In the Department of Health and Social Care’s words, it replaced rules in the Food Labelling Regulations 1996, which were revoked the same day.

The guidance names four descriptors. Its own words are that their use is voluntary, and that if they are used it sets the suggested conditions. A descriptor, if used, should be clearly presented on the front of the label and wherever the strength is repeated, and for draught drinks it should be clear before or at the point of purchase.

The guidance is for England. The Department’s evidence review of 2023 records England as the only UK nation to publish guidance on these descriptors. The guidance says Trading Standards departments will have regard to it when judging a label, and that a breach could lead to enforcement action where the labelling is misleading, inaccurate or unclear.

Two limits follow from the wording. Alcohol free is set for a drink from which alcohol has been extracted, so the guidance does not say in so many words what a drink that never held alcohol may be called. And zero does not appear in it at all. The evidence review found zero in wide use, and an indication that many beers and wines used it when the real ABV was above 0%.

The same review looked at sales in the year to September 2022. Of the litres of no and low spirits sold under the words alcohol free, 79.9% were above 0.05% ABV, against the guidance. The review read that as a limit of a voluntary approach. It also said the use of zero for products above 0% ABV might mislead, and that its appropriateness should be considered.

The evidence review reproduces a table of the strength at which other countries allow a drink to be described as containing no alcohol, taken from a 2022 narrative review. Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the USA are at 0.5% ABV, Canada at 0.4%, the Netherlands at 0.1%, Spain at 1.0% and France at 1.2%. The UK, at 0.05%, was the lowest. The most common figure was 0.5%.

The review added that responses to the 2018 consultation had suggested a lower threshold could put UK producers at a commercial disadvantage. It said the data to test that were not available, and that people buying alcohol-free products might prefer a lower ABV.

A 2026 comparison of eight countries, by Burton and others in Drug and Alcohol Review, points the same way. Its abstract gives alcohol free at 0.05% ABV or below in the UK and at 1.15% ABV or below in parts of Australia, and calls the governance of these drinks fragmented and inconsistent.

The consultation on changing the guidance ran from 28 September to 23 November 2023. On 1 November 2026, its GOV.UK page still read “We are analysing your feedback”, and no outcome had been published. The consultation asked whether the conditions for the descriptors should be set in regulations, whether the strength should be shown as a number on the label, whether the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines should be shown there, and whether these products should carry an age restriction.

The 10 Year Health Plan for England, published in July 2025, says: “we will consult on changing the upper strength threshold at which a drink may be described as alcohol free to 0.5% ABV, which will bring it into alignment with international standards.” It adds that the government will explore options to restrict access to these products, including banning sales to under 18 year-olds.

In a written answer of 16 June 2026 to question 8439, Sharon Hodgson repeated both commitments for the Department. She said engagement sessions with stakeholders, producers and retailers had recently concluded, and that officials were reviewing the evidence to determine next steps. Both commitments are promises to consult and to explore. Neither is a decision.

Until the guidance is changed, the limits in the table above stand.

Article 9(4) of Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, as it applies in Great Britain, bars the names of the spirit categories from describing or presenting any other drink “in any way whatsoever”. Gin, rum and whisky are among those categories in Annex II. A drink with no alcohol in it is not a spirit drink either, because Article 2 sets a minimum strength of 15% ABV.

The descriptors guidance comes at it from the other side. In the Department of Health and Social Care’s guidance, non-alcoholic should not be used with a name commonly associated with an alcoholic drink, and the descriptors cannot currently be used with spirit drinks as Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 defines them.

Read together, the two texts explain the phrases on the bottles: spirit alternative, botanical, distilled non-alcoholic. We found no ruling on a phrase such as gin-style, so that is a reading of the rules, not a decision. How to read a rum label shows the same habit of reading a name for what it commits the bottle to.

A drink above 1.2% ABV may leave out its list of ingredients and its nutrition declaration, and Article 16(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 says so. Nothing in that Article reaches a drink at or below 1.2% ABV. The Business Companion, updated in March 2026, puts it plainly: at or below 1.2% ABV the product is no longer an alcoholic beverage, so the exemptions for the ingredients list, nutrition declaration and durability indication do not apply.

The descriptors guidance repeats the point at paragraph 1.10 for the drinks it covers. The nutrition declaration includes sugars, under Article 30, so the figure per 100ml is on the panel. Annex X leaves out a date only for drinks of 10% ABV or more, so a best before date is on the bottle as well.

Allergens follow the same route. Annex II lists fourteen groups, among them milk, nuts and sulphites, and Article 21 requires them to stand out from the rest of the ingredients list. The groups apply at every strength, so a 0% bottle is read like any other food label.

GOV.UK’s Alcohol Duty rates, updated on 1 February 2026, set no duty from 0 to 1.2% ABV in every table, whether the drink is beer, cider, spirits, wine or another fermented product. WSET adds a cost of a different kind: without alcohol there is less protection against microbial growth, and adapting a spirits plant to make an alcohol-free spirit can require substantial investment. A drink at 0.5% ABV and one at 1.2% ABV fall in the same nil band, so the descriptor on the bottle does not change the tax.

The first four differ in how they are made, and the last differs in what it says. Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 bars health claims on beverages above 1.2% ABV, and Article 10 prohibits health claims on any food unless they are authorised. Alcohol-free spirits explained takes the three spirit routes in turn, and the alcohol-free spirit and alcohol-free aperitif pages show what to read on each label.

WSET, writing in August 2026, puts the problem plainly: ethanol carries aroma, contributes warmth and texture, and helps a spirit persist in the mouth. Take it out, or never put it in, and each of those has to be rebuilt. The article adds that the higher the starting alcohol level, the greater the sensory impact of removing it, which makes spirits a harder case than beer or wine.

The article sorts the methods into two generations. In the first, the alcohol is made and then removed, which can flatten aroma and mouthfeel. In the second, the drink is designed without alcohol from the outset.

Keeping changes too. An opened bottle of alcohol-free spirit has no alcohol to protect it, and WSET says there is no magic number for how long it stays stable. One producer’s published FAQ says to use its bottle within three months of opening. The label governs.

The NHS counts one unit as 10ml of pure alcohol. A 500ml drink at 0.5% ABV holds 2.5ml of pure alcohol, which is 0.25 units. At 0.05% ABV the same drink holds 0.25ml, or 0.025 units. A 330ml can at 0.5% ABV holds 1.65ml, or 0.165 units, and a 440ml can holds 2.2ml, or 0.22 units.

The Department’s evidence review puts such amounts in context. It records research finding 1.2g of alcohol per 100g of bread and up to 0.77g per litre of fruit juice, and says many people are exposed to very low levels of ethanol in foods that need no labelling to show it.

Angostura bitters are 44.7% ABV and go in by the dash. Section 191 of the Licensing Act 2003 leaves them out by name from the Act’s definition of alcohol for England and Wales. That is a licensing rule, and it does not change the strength of the bottle.

Vanilla extract is 35% ABV, and a teaspoon holds about 0.2 units. Worcestershire sauce and maraschino cherries list no alcohol on the labels and data sheets read for their pages. A drink with no alcohol in it leaves out the bitters and the extract.

GOV.UK’s drink drive limit page, read on 1 November 2026, gives the limits for England, Wales and Northern Ireland as 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, 80 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood and 107 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of urine. In Scotland they are 22, 50 and 67. The page says it is impossible to say exactly how many drinks this equals, because it is different for each person.

The Department’s evidence review identified no studies on the effect of drinking alcohol-free products on driving.

On pregnancy, the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines, published on 25 August 2016, say: “If you are pregnant or think you could become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to keep risks to your baby to a minimum.” That is the guideline on alcohol, quoted as written.

Section 191 of the Licensing Act 2003 defines alcohol for that Act, in England and Wales, and excludes alcohol of a strength not exceeding 0.5% at the time of sale. The 10 Year Health Plan says the government will explore options to treat no and low products in the same ways as all alcohol products, including banning sales to under 18 year-olds. The 2023 consultation asked about an age restriction as well.

The Portman Group’s alcohol alternatives guidance, launched in January 2024, defines an alcohol alternative as a drink of 0.5% ABV or below and asks that its marketing has no particular appeal to under-18s. It also recommends, on a precautionary basis, that marketing does not depict or reference such a drink being consumed during pregnancy. Marketing that shows people driving, playing sport or taking part in risky activities after an alcohol alternative should make clear that they drank the alternative.

The Field Manual holds recipes for the glass. The Alcohol-free Spritz and the Spirit Alternative and Tonic are built from types of drink, never from brands, and the Virgin Mary answers the Worcestershire question on the recipe. The Virgin Mojito, Virgin Colada, Virgin Passion Fruit Martini, Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade and Watermelon Cooler have no alcohol in them to begin with. Their originals are the Mojito, Piña Colada and Pornstar Martini.

Mixers are pages of their own: tonic water and soda water. The glass stays the same as for the alcoholic drink, a highball glass, a copa glass or a Nick and Nora glass. Christmas drinks pairings and Valentine’s Day drinks each carry a section on the alcohol-free glass, and how to batch cocktails covers a jug made without alcohol. The cocktail terms glossary defines mocktail and virgin, and ABV vs proof explains the scale underneath every figure here.

Cans at 0.5% ABV or below are alcohol alternatives in the Portman Group’s terms, and ready-to-drink cocktails covers the cans above that line.