The call for clear definitions in the alcohol-free category
Ten years ago, chef Kobe Desramaults floored me with an alcohol-free pairing at his restaurant In de Wulf. A glass with no alcohol, yet so full of tension, texture, and character that it rewrote everything I thought I knew about drinks.
Since then, at Foodlab PROEF, we’ve understood that it’s not about what you take out, but what you add. We don’t see non-alcoholic as a passing fad—it’s a cultural shift. A category in the making. And it’s long overdue.
Lessons from Uncle Eric
My passion for food innovation started with wine: fermented grape juice with depth. Cépages that breathe their region. A barrel that whispers. A bottle that speaks.
My academic fascination with fermentation technology was soon joined by concepts like terroir, barrel aging, and grape biodiversity—alongside the stories of my uncle Eric.
Uncle Eric was the first to teach me how to smell, taste, and name. He knows exactly how the nose of a Barbera relates to the finish of a Pouilly-Fumé. His cellar is an archive of aroma profiles. His enthusiasm was contagious. And he taught me that the essence of flavour lies in subtlety, in layers, in what you don’t taste immediately.
That knowledge is priceless when developing alcohol-free drinks.
Please Don’t Call It “Proxy”
The word proxy feels condescending—like these drinks are mere copycats—when in fact they’re adding a thrilling new dimension to the beverage landscape.
The non-alcoholic world has exploded in variety, complexity, and craftsmanship: from fermented teas and adaptogenic elixirs to botanical distillates and herbal extracts. They’re driven by conscious drinkers, chefs, bartenders, and food innovators who don’t want “water with a slice of lemon,” but a drink that makes sense—from aroma to finish.
The physical sensation of alcohol—the “kick”—is a big part of why alcoholic drinks are popular. At PROEF, we’re finding alternatives to replicate that feeling, using plant extracts, bitters, acids, and oleoresins.
Two Strategies in the Lab
When we develop non-alcoholic drinks, we work along two main strategies:
- Re-engineering – We break down the aroma structure of an alcoholic drink, identify its building blocks, and reconstruct the profile using alcohol-free ingredients.
Example: Virgo Vanilla & Oak by Filliers, which uses wood extracts, natural aromas, and distillates to create depth, stability, and finesse. Precision is key here—many aromas use alcohol as a carrier, which can quickly collide with regulations. - Originals – Starting from scratch.
Example: The range from Joke Michiel at Souvenir in Ghent, where kefir, chicory, and shiso come together to form something entirely new—not a wine replica, but a drink with its own distinct identity.
“Alcohol-free doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it’s often more exciting.”
Measuring Matters—But Not for Everyone
In the EU, a drink can be labelled “alcohol-free” if it contains less than 0.5% alcohol. Only “0.0%” means zero alcohol. In practice, drinks marketed as alcohol-free can sometimes exceed that 0.5% limit.
Why? Because accurately measuring alcohol content below 0.5% requires gas chromatography (GC)—precise but costly, and only available in specialised labs. Alternative methods, like enzymatic tests or density measurements, often give false results in complex drinks like kombucha or kefir.
The result: a fast-growing category innovating on gut feeling and assumption. Many young brands are working blind, without the tools to verify their own claims—hardly ideal for a sector where transparency is key.
A Category That Must Grow Up
The alcohol-free category is bursting with creativity: fermentation, distillates, herbs, extracts. Flavours are sharp, packaging is on point, ambition is high. But there’s no shared language, no clear definitions, no consistent rules for labelling, claims, or percentages.
Until the food and beverage industry agrees on what “alcohol-free” means, how to measure it, and what can or can’t be communicated, consumers will remain in the dark. And trust is everything in a category built on health and consciousness.
Growing up doesn’t mean losing creativity—it means building on clarity, innovating with knowledge, and communicating with respect for the end user. At PROEF, we work with quality control partners, regulators, and technology developers to help lay that foundation. Because maturity is the key to growth.
Technology as a Solution
Our colleague Jurgen Demeester recently founded Innodrop, a tech company that converts oil-soluble aromas into a stable water base—allowing citrus oil flavours, for example, to be used in alcohol-free drinks without alcohol as a carrier. This isn’t a gimmick—it’s a structural fix. It enables flavour development within the legal limits. And that’s exactly what the sector needs: less vagueness, more precision.
Not “Less-Than,” But “More-Of”
Alcohol-free is not “less-than.” Whether it’s a fermented rhubarb shrub with a local story, or a premium 0.0% drink for a fine-dining pairing, the best alcohol-free beverages unite flavour, identity, and intent.
It’s more-of: more taste, more story, more responsibility. And more than ever, we need clear labelling, fermentation-specific regulation, and consumer education on what’s really in the glass.
The future is fluid. And we raise our glass—alcoholic or not—to everything yet to come.