Sales of alcohol-free beer in the UK have more than tripled in the past five years, and you'll find more types of no and low-alcohol beer on sale in your local supermarket. But what does 'alcohol-free' really mean? And are these drinks always better for your health? Various listeners got in touch with us about this one, so we enlisted the help of two experts to answer their questions. Laura Willoughby knows a lot about no/low alcohol beer as co-founder of Club Soda which says it exists "to help people drink more mindfully and live well”. Kerry Torrens is a registered nutritionist who has been working in the food and drink sector for two decades. Once again this series we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products, so f you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Jon Douglas

Sales of alcohol-free beer in the UK have more than tripled in the past five years, and you'll find more types of no and low-alcohol beer on sale in your local supermarket. But what does 'alcohol-free' really mean? And are these drinks always better for your health? Various listeners got in touch with us about this one, so we enlisted the help of two experts to answer their questions. Laura Willoughby knows a lot about no/low alcohol beer as co-founder of Club Soda which says it exists "to help people drink more mindfully and live well”. Kerry Torrens is a registered nutritionist who has been working in the food and drink sector for two decades. Once again this series we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products, so f you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807. PRESENTER: Greg Foot PRODUCER: Jon Douglas

Low and No Alcohol Beer

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else.Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

Health & Fitness

While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers. In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist Sean Farrington examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did people back it? Why did they get burnt? Some of the world’s most successful businesses have also brought us some of the world’s most remarkable failures. So, what led them to be toast? And what can we learn from their stories today? Sean unpicks all the early optimism, hype and ambition. He learns about the tremendous success of a brand before hearing how it faltered, with help from expert commentators and people who were directly involved. How do they view things now and what, if anything, could have been done differently? The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed a brand’s fortunes and reaching her own, often instructive, conclusions. From big tech to high street retail and, of course, food, Toast tackles the business ideas that, one way or another, ended up cooked. Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in January, 2026. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds. For this brand new series of Toast, episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode on BBC Sounds first, a week earlier than anywhere else. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

Share Low and No Alcohol Beer

Sign up to save your podcasts

Low and No Alcohol Beer

Low and No Alcohol Beer

More shows like Sliced Bread

Global News Podcast

More or Less

Newshour

Money Box

In Our Time

The Documentary Podcast

6 Minute English

Learning English Conversations

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

Desert Island Discs

The Food Programme

The Bottom Line

BBC Inside Science

Inside Health

Curious Cases

The Life Scientific

All in the Mind

You're Dead to Me

Americast

The Bomb

Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley

ZOE Science & Nutrition

What's Up Docs?