Is alcohol-free beer safe to drink during pregnancy?

We will not tell you this is officially signed off, because it genuinely is not - and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.

The UK Chief Medical Officers' guidance is that pregnant women (and those trying to conceive) should not drink alcohol at all, full stop. That guidance does not carve out an exception for 0.0% or trace-alcohol drinks specifically - there is currently no official NHS statement distinguishing a genuinely alcohol-free product from a low-alcohol one on this point.

In practice, plenty of pregnant women do choose 0.0% drinks and consider the trace alcohol level a non-issue - public surveys back this up, with the large majority considering true "0.0%" acceptable versus far fewer for 0.5-1.2% "low alcohol" drinks. But that is a personal judgement call people are making in the absence of specific official guidance, not a green light from a health authority.

Our honest advice: if you want to be as cautious as the official guidance suggests, choose the lowest ABV you can find (true 0.0% rather than 0.5% de-alcoholised) and talk it through with your midwife or GP if you are unsure. Do not take a blog post - including this one - as medical advice.