You can't buy alcohol-free lager if you're under 18. Is that right?

[HollyCanDoAnything]

Went to Tesco today, "scan-as-you-shop" and the Becks Blue showed on the handset as "Age Restricted Item" Had to be "age approved" by staff before i could pay.

I'm wondering if this is just a tesco policy, or if it's a legal thing.
I guess they have a good reason for it, but i'm buggered if i can think what it could be.

I was told that alcohol free drinks are still alcohol based products but that the alcohol is removed but legally that means it’s still age restricted. Don’t know if it’s accurate, a staff member in Waitrose told me so presume the same at all supermarkets.

Same in Sainsbury’s.

Im probably wrong but I'm under the impression that 'alcohol free' drinks still involved alcohol in its production but then had ALMOST all of it removed. Ergo a check at the till.

Morrisons do the same, including mocktails.

I got ID'd once buying a case of Beck's Blue with my weekly shop 😭 and I would have been in my mid thirties! There might have been a bottle of wine (the proper stuff) but it was the Beck's that triggered an ID check.

Pubs won't sell it to them either, my 18yo found this out when she was ID'd for it.

Yeah, they always ID check on the self services for AF beers. Some are something like 0.5% but it’s just general policy.

I work in a pub and we are not allowed to sell them to under 18s.
I know some of them are 0.5% alcohol rather than totally alcohol free.

Google says that,
legally under 18s can purchase non alcoholic beers in hospitality settings but not in supermarket as the sale of non-alcoholic beer to minors in stores are prohibited. This is because these establishments are considered as off-licenced premises, where the sale of alcohol to under 18 is prohibited by law.

Becks Blue has a miniscule amount of alcohol in it, 0.05%

I'm wondering now if they'd have age restrictions on things like red wine vinegar.

And i think there's a few foods that contain small amounts of alcohol, like kombucha, and some yoghurts. I wonder if i should get id checked for buying ripe bananas.

And how many bananas would i need on standby in case i run out of wine?

There was a really interesting podcast on alcohol free drinks, and it covered this.

While it's not illegal to sell it to under 18s in pubs (you don't even need to be licensed to sell it), the pub industry has agreed not to do so because they feel it would harm their trade. If the bizzies come in, how do they know which beer, once poured, has alcohol and which does not?
If this cannot be ascertained, pubs might then have to stop selling alcohol free drinks at all. And they don't want to do that because it's a growing market and, I assume, brings people to pubs who might otherwise not go (non drinkers, drivers, people with health conditions, people who don't want other people to know they don't drink etc).

It's confusing for staff to have to keep checking too.

Also, because of the branding, they don't want to be seen to be promoting alcohol to kids (if only vape manufacturers were so ethical huh?).

Generally speaking it isn’t illegal to sell non-alcoholic beverages to under 18s most pubs etc wouldn’t, as some are not always alcohol free most are 0.5% so just avoid it altogether.

However an under 18 can be bought a beer by someone who is over 18.

It’s not alcohol free it’s just low enough in alcohol that they can label it alcohol free, but since it contains alcohol you need ID

Lots of misinformation and misinformed people on here. Any beer under 0.5% alcohol can be sold or bought by anybody as it is not considered alcoholic under UK law (remember the old top deck shandy cans?). However pubs and retailers can choose (and many do) to refuse to sell it to anyone under 18 as a policy of not promoting beer to minors or not confusing real and zero beer. They are under no legal obligation to do so, there is no such thing as off/on lincencing any more (they are both under the same laws of 'premises licence').