Foods with a natural alcohol content - which nobody suspects

Your non-alcoholic wines don't have 0.0% alcohol!

A closer look reveals that many natural foods contain small amounts of alcohol - without anyone noticing. And without any additives.
👉 Here are 8 foods that secretly contain alcohol - and no one notices.

🧠 Who thinks of bananas, bread or sauerkraut when they think of alcohol?
Hardly anyone. But wherever sugar and microorganisms come together, some alcohol is produced naturally.
Even those who consistently avoid wine, beer or cocktails consume tiny amounts of alcohol every day - not because someone adds alcohol, but because nature produces it itself.

🍇 Why natural alcohol is produced

As soon as sugar and yeast meet, a little biochemical dance begins: the yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and ethanol. This fermentation happens everywhere - on the skin of a ripe banana, in bread dough, in sauerkraut or even in a yoghurt pot. The result: measurable but harmless traces of alcohol that you can neither taste nor feel.

🧾 8 foods with a natural alcohol content

1️⃣ Ripe fruit: Overripe bananas, apples or grapes: up to 0.5% alcohol by volume due to natural fermentation.
2️⃣ Yeast pastries & bread: Alcohol is produced while the dough is rising. Most of it evaporates during baking - some remains.
3️⃣ Sauerkraut & kimchi: Lactic acid fermentation produces small amounts of ethanol as well as acid.
4️⃣ Apple cider vinegar & soy sauce: Naturally brewed - often with up to 1.5% alcohol by volume.
5️⃣ Kefir & kombucha: Fermented drinks with 0.3 - 2 vol. %, depending on culture and storage.
6️⃣ Fruit juices: Apple and grape juice in particular can easily start to ferment when heated.
7️⃣ Matured cheese: Maturation produces minimal alcohol - e.g. in Emmental or Camembert.
8️⃣ Miso & fish sauce: Fermentation classics from Asia - with up to 2 % alcohol by volume.

Haardt Hills & the natural definition of "alcohol-free"
Like many other foods, our alcohol-free Haardt Hills wines contain up to 0.5 % alcohol by volume. This is not due to a lack of dealcoholization, but to the natural limit of what is technically and sensory sensible.our goal is authenticity instead of artificial zero: We preserve flavors, textures and origins - and reduce alcohol only as much as nature allows. Lest we misunderstand each other - I take my customers' concerns and worries seriously, it is only important to me to point out the natural occurrence of alcohol in food.