A new phenomenological approach is suggested for determining the strangeness content of light‐flavour isoscalars. This approach is based on phenomenological laws of hadron production related to the spin, isospin, strangeness content and mass of the particles. From the total production rates per hadronic Z decay of all light‐flavour hadrons, measured so far at LEP, the values of the nonstrange‐strange mixing angles are found to be |&Jgr;P| = 42.3°±3.5°, |&Jgr;V| = 10°±8°, |&Jgr;T| = 16°±11° and |&Jgr;S| = 13°±9°. Our results on the &eegr;−&eegr;′, &ohgr;−&fgr; andf2−f′2isoscalar mixing are consistent with the present experimental evidence. The strangeness content obtained for thef0(980) scalar/isoscalar is not consistent with the values supported by recent model studies and is discussed further in the framework of our approach and theK‐matrix analysis. © 2002 American Institute of Physics