The absence of alcohol is given one reason for this, but that’s not the only explanation.

Could this scientific research put the brakes on “dry January,” the month when people typically take a break from drinking?

Researchers at Cornell University in the US conducted experiments with alcohol-free beers and discovered that, in the absence of ethanol, the risk of pathogen development was not negligible. In other words, bacteria are more likely to proliferate in drinks that have been de-alcoholised.

Published in the Journal of Food Protection, these findings suggest that several stages in the production of alcohol-free beers warrant the full attention of brands to avoid this kind of issue, including the brewing and the storage of such beverages.

“We suspected that foodborne pathogens would be able to grow without the presence of alcohol. We were correct. At that point, you must consider non-alcoholic beer like food and make sure that all parameters are met guaranteeing product safety,” explains the senior author of the research, food science professor Randy Worobo.

To reach this conclusion, the scientists inoculated samples of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beer with three strains of bacteria: E.coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica.

The samples were stored at two different temperatures for two months, enabling potential differences to be analysed. In the non-alcoholic beer, the pathogens grew and survived.

In the low-alcohol beer, when stored at 13.9°C (57° Fahrenheit), the presence of E. coli and Salmonella bacteria doubled, while Listeria was not found at either temperature or condition.

However, it would be too simplistic to consider alcohol alone as a protective agent. The reason is far more complex. It’s actually a combination of factors that protects traditional beer from the development of pathogens, unlike its de-alcoholised counterparts.

Traditional beers have a low pH, contain very little oxygen and are marked by the acidity of the hops, all of which contribute to microbial stability.

However, the same cannot be said of alcohol-free beers. The subject is all the more topical as alcohol-free beer manufacturers are imitating traditional processes, for example by adding hops at the time of fermentation or conditioning.

In the case of non-alcoholic beers, this technique is used to accentuate the taste of the beverage, although the scientists point to it as a process that can “potentially introduce contamination.”

These findings come at a particularly buoyant time for low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers, the first segment to lay the groundwork for the broader consumer trend for alcohol-free drinks.