Alcohol addiction support group founder Shanna Whan wants manufacturers of zero-alcohol beverages to be clear about the potential risks associated with the drinks as the festive season shifts into high gear.
The Sober in the Country chief executive said the beverages were a terrific option for some consumers — typically someone who was a social drinker.
"However, the flip side of the coin is that they can pose a serious risk to vulnerable people in early recovery from alcohol addiction," she said.
Ms Whan said she had serious concerns about how the products were marketed.
"There's fairly blasé marketing from zero-alcohol manufacturers assuring people that they're a safe and wonderful option for all," she said.
"And that simply isn't the case."
She said her experience with zero-alcohol products triggered a life-threatening relapse into alcohol addiction in 2014.
"My addicted brain was going, 'Hmmm … it tastes like wine or it tastes like beer. But there is no effect'," she said.
"Someone like me in chronic addiction was never drinking for taste, so all it did was make me want the real stuff."
She said the message was clear from her peer support group.
"I'd say that those who've been fortunate enough to make it back from a relapse, like me, will never touch imitation alcohol again, because they learned, as I did, that something imitating the taste and smell of booze is a really slippery slope," she said.
However, Ms Whan said everyone's experience was different and the drinks could be a useful tool for some.
"It's just impossible to predict whether they will or won't have an impact on somebody," she said.
"And that's a risk that is unacceptable to me.
''All we're asking for is full disclosure because this is a risk that can be easily minimised with more clear and transparent marketing from zero-alcohol beverage manufacturers.''
Disclaimer needed
Ms Whan was concerned about manufacturers' "blanket assumption" that the products were good for everyone.
"If you are marketing or producing zero-alcohol beverages, the very, very least that should be getting done from a duty-of-care perspective is that on websites or packaging you need to have a small qualification somewhere that says 'By the way, these could be a risk to people who are vulnerable or in early recovery'," she said.
"If these same manufacturers are all about people's health, and all about people's welfare and wellbeing, then it should be a no-brainer by their same logic to put that disclaimer there."
Same regulations as alcohol
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation is calling for zero-alcohol beverages to be subjected to the same regulations as full-strength products.
The foundation's evidence manager Eleanor Costello said the products mimicked their alcoholic counterparts.
"They look like alcohol, they're marketed like alcohol, they taste like alcohol, they smell like alcohol," Ms Costello said.
She said the products, which were increasing in popularity, had a place for people who were using the drinks for substitution.
"But what we're seeing is it creeping into more and more activities that alcohol wouldn't normally be involved in," she said.
"Our concern is around an alcohol product that mimics alcohol being consumed at breakfast time, while you're driving, after sport, all of these activities that normally alcohol wouldn't be consumed in."
Not for children
The foundation recommends against imitation alcohol for children.
"We don't know enough about how these products will condition young people to drink in the longer term," Ms Costello said.
"And for that reason, we recommend that [parents] shouldn't provide it to young people."
But she said there was evidence that showed giving children small sips of alcohol increased risky drinking later in life.
"[Zero-alcohol beverages] condition that behaviour of going out and drinking alcohol products, which adds to our drinking culture, which makes it harder for people to drink in low-risk ways," Ms Costello said.
Industry body Alcohol Beverages Australia declined to comment.
