What does 0.0 per cent on a label mean?

Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 allows the actual alcoholic strength by volume to be stated with at most one decimal, followed by the sign % vol and measured at 20 degrees Celsius.

The word alcohol may appear before the number. More decimals are not allowed, so a measured value of 0.04 or 0.02 percent by volume appears on the bottle as 0.0 percent.

So 0.0 percent on a label is not a promise of zero molecules, but a figure rounded according to a fixed rule.

A bottle with 0.0 percent carries a content rounded to one decimal, while 0.5 percent by volume is the legal upper limit below which a drink is called non-alcoholic.

The Alcohol Act defines alcoholic drink as a drink that at 20 degrees Celsius consists of more than half a percent by volume of alcohol. A drink of exactly 0.5 percent by volume therefore falls just outside it.

Two bottles that are both called alcohol-free can therefore bridge a difference of half a percentage point.

In the Netherlands the designation alcohol-free beer belongs to at most 0.1 percent by volume, and low-alcohol beer to more than 0.1 up to and including 1.2 percent by volume.

Those two designations are laid down in the Warenwet and apply only to beer. For soft drinks and lemonade a different approach applies: there up to 0.5 percent by volume of alcohol may arise naturally, for example through fermentation.

For wine, spirits and mixed drinks, there is no comparable designation with its own limit in the Warenwet.

Stating the alcohol content by volume is mandatory above 1.2 percent by volume; below that a producer may include the figure, but does not have to.

Many makers of alcohol-free drinks put it on the bottle anyway, because buyers explicitly look for it. If nothing is stated, that says nothing in itself about the contents.

For drinks above 1.2 percent by volume there is also an exemption from the nutrition declaration and the ingredient list. Below that limit the ordinary rules do apply.

For beer up to and including 5.5 percent by volume, a permitted deviation of 0.5 percentage points applies, for stronger beer 1 percentage point and for other drinks 0.3 percentage points.

For drinks with macerated fruit or plant parts, 1.5 percentage points are permitted. These margins are set out in Annex XII of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 and apply in addition to the inaccuracy of the measuring method itself.

The margins are written for drinks that must state the content, so above 1.2 percent by volume. At 0.0 percent it is mainly about rounding to one decimal.