In its new report titled Gateway? No way, ‘no, low & mid-strength drink advocates’ Club Soda said its research has found there is no evidence that drinking alcohol-free products leads young people or adults to start consuming full-strength alcohol.
Join our WhatsApp channel: The Morning Round-Up
Get the biggest pub trade stories straight to your phone. Listen to our one-minute daily news briefing and receive breaking news, exclusives and sector updates throughout the day. Remember to turn notifications on in the top right corner!
The group, co-founded by Laura Willoughby MBE, said its findings point in the opposite direction and that, for the overwhelming majority of people, alcohol comes first, with alcohol-free drinks introduced later as a way to moderate.
Club Soda’s own research found 94% of respondents drank full-strength alcohol beer before they ever tried an alcohol-free beer.
The report added applying the ‘gateway theory’ to alcohol-free drinks gets the order of events backwards. For alcohol-free drinks to genuinely act as a gateway, there would need to be evidence that people typically begin with alcohol-free products and then progress to alcohol but no such pattern was discovered.
Instead, people’s introduction to drinking is overwhelmingly through full-strength alcohol. Alcohol-free products are more commonly adopted later, as consumers look to reduce their drinking, take days off alcohol, alternate between alcoholic and alcohol-free drinks, or simply have more choice.
Story is completely backwards
Club Soda added it is worth noting alcohol-free drinks do not contain any alcohol, the addictive part of the alcoholic drink, so unlike vaping and escalating drug use, there is no effect to stimulate progressing to full strength drinks.
The report also examines concerns about young people. UK research by Oldham et al, cited in Gateway? No Way, found alcohol-free drinks are rarely consumed by under-18s. Notably, within family settings, young people were more likely to be offered alcoholic drinks than alcohol-free alternatives.
Willoughby said: “The idea that alcohol-free drinks somehow teach people to drink alcohol gets the story completely backwards. For almost everyone, alcohol comes first. Alcohol-free drinks are something people discover later, when they want to moderate, have more choice, or stay part of the occasion without drinking alcohol.
“Calling alcohol-free drinks a gateway risks turning one of the tools people are using to drink less into part of the problem. If we are serious about reducing alcohol harm, we should be making these drinks easier to find, understand and afford, not putting unnecessary barriers in their way.
“The gateway to drinking alcohol is alcohol. The evidence simply doesn’t show that alcohol-free drinks are leading people towards it.”
Removing barriers
Luke Boase, founder of alcohol-free beer brand Lucky Saint, added: “Alcohol-free beer and Lucky Saint have increasingly become a part of everyday drinking culture. People are choosing to drink it across different occasions and right throughout the week and the weekend.
“What Club Soda’s report makes clear is that alcohol-free beer is not encouraging people to drink alcohol, it is giving them another way to drink less of it. And that is something we should be celebrating as a nation.
“As more people look at making alcohol-free part of their normal routine, we should be removing barriers and making great alcohol-free options even more widely available.”
Club Soda is also calling on the Government to update the UK definition of alcohol-free from 0.05% ABV to 0.5% ABV so it is brought into line with international markets, and by looking at ways to make alcohol-free drinks more accessible and affordable, including through VAT.
Willoughby explained: “We have an extraordinary opportunity here. People are already changing how they drink, and alcohol-free products are helping them do it. Government policy should make that easier, not harder.”
