Club Soda’s new ‘Gateway? No Way’ report finds no evidence that alcohol-free drinks lead people towards alcohol, and growing evidence that they help people moderate instead.
New research from global no, low and mid-strength drink advocates Club Soda challenges claims that alcohol-free drinks act as a “gateway” to drinking alcohol.
Their new report, “Gateway? No Way.”, reviews research from around the world and finds no evidence that drinking alcohol-free products leads young people or adults to start consuming full-strength alcohol. Instead, the evidence points in the opposite direction: 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 that 94% of respondents drank full-strength alcohol beer before they ever tried an alcohol-free beer.
The report argues that 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. The research reviewed by Club Soda found no such pattern.
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. It is worth noting that 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.
Research cited in the report supports this. A study by Groefsema et al found that Dutch students who had never consumed alcohol-free drinks drank, on average, more alcohol than those who consumed both alcoholic and alcohol-free products. The majority of students drinking alcohol-free products also said these drinks had helped them reduce their alcohol consumption.
This reflects a much wider shift towards moderation. Club Soda’s latest industry data shows alcohol consumption is falling while alcohol-free drinking continues to grow, with consumers increasingly mixing different strengths of drinks depending on the occasion.
The report also examines concerns about young people. UK research by Oldham et al, cited in Gateway? No Way, found that 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.
Club Soda argues that this distinction matters. Alcohol-free drinks do not contain the intoxicating and addictive substance that defines alcoholic drinks, and there is no evidence that their consumption creates an escalation towards alcohol use.
The gateway to drinking alcohol is alcohol.
Laura Willoughby MBE, co-founder of Club Soda, 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.”
Luke Boase, Founder of Lucky Saint, commented:
“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 Gateway 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.”
The findings come as alcohol-free drinking becomes increasingly mainstream. Across the UK, consumers are drinking less frequently, using alcohol-free products alongside alcoholic drinks and adopting moderation strategies as part of everyday socialising. Club Soda’s wider research has consistently shown that moderation is no longer a niche behaviour or something confined to January.
Club Soda is calling on the Government to support this shift by updating the UK definition of alcohol-free from 0.05% ABV to 0.5% ABV, bringing it into line with international markets, and by looking at ways to make alcohol-free drinks more accessible and affordable, including through VAT.
Laura added:
“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.”
As part of their lobbying and education work, Club Soda are holding their annual No, Low & Mid-Strength Summit on the 6th and 7th of October in Waterloo, London, where producers, buyers, innovators and industry leaders will come together to discuss opportunities and challenges for the future of the category.
Club Soda’s Gateway? No Way report is free to download at https://joinclubsoda.com/research
It will be a topic at the No, Low and Mid-Strength Summit – details can be found at: https://joinclubsoda.com/nlm-london/
