Walk into any supermarket today and you will see a growing array of bottles and cans labelled “alcohol-free,” “low alcohol” or “light”. At first glance, this looks like progress, a sign that healthier choices are available in a region where alcohol causes nearly 800 000 deaths every year, and where 1 in 10 adults live with alcohol use disorder.
The fact that producers are lowering alcohol content is a step in the right direction, aligned with the WHO Global Alcohol Action Plan. But looking closer at no- and low-alcohol beverages (NoLos), the picture is far less straightforward, and countries such as Belgium have raised the issue publicly, pointing to the risks that vague or misleading descriptors pose for consumers.
What do these terms really mean?
The first question that comes up is what does “low” really mean? According to the WHO report “A public health perspective on zero and low-alcohol beverages”, in some countries, “alcohol-free” is defined as 0.0% alcohol by volume (ABV). Elsewhere, the same label can legally sit on a drink containing up to 0.5%, or even 2.8% ABV. For “low alcohol”, there are even fewer rules. Where definitions exist, they can stretch as high as 3.7% ABV. The result is a patchwork of standards across the European Region, leaving consumers in the dark about what they are really purchasing and consuming.
Vague or misleading labels deepen the problem
The confusion may be increasing. To meet rising demand from health-conscious consumers, producers are developing new “reduced” or “lower strength” versions of familiar drinks. Wine at 6% ABV, or gins at 20% ABV now sit alongside the traditional 11–14% wines and 40% spirits. But without rules on how these products can be described, alcoholic beverages that still contain substantial amounts of alcohol may be labelled and marketed as “light” or “low alcohol”.
Why does this matter?
Research on tobacco and food labelling show that terms like “low” and “light” can mislead consumers, creating a false sense of safety and encouraging the feeling that one can consume more because the product seems less harmful. It can also create a “health halo effect”, which influences the overall perceptions of products as healthier based on a single attribute, for example “low fat”. For alcohol, where even small amounts are linked to increased health risks, (notably breast cancer risk), the consequence of misunderstanding is clear.
A need for clarity, regulation and honesty
Consumers deserve truth on the label. To protect public health, measures to consider include:
- define terms like “no alcohol”, “low alcohol” and “reduced alcohol” consistently across countries and across the different types of alcoholic beverages;
- require product labels to state the exact ABV, without misleading descriptors;
- close marketing loopholes that let NoLos be used as a tool for brand promotion; and
- apply health warnings, nutritional information and ingredient lists consistently, on the label itself and not hidden behind QR codes.
Reducing the alcohol content of alcoholic beverages can bring public health benefits. It is an explicit proposed measure of the Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030 that alcohol producers should “substitute, whenever possible, higher-alcohol products with no-alcohol and lower-alcohol products in their overall product portfolios”.
But the Action Plan also makes clear that this must be done transparently, without circumventing existing regulations or targeting new consumer groups, so that consumers know what they are choosing. Today, vague and inconsistent labelling can create confusion and mislead people looking for alternative options. Clarity and consistency are key for people to truly make informed choices, and so that policy-makers can act on solid evidence.