US drink ban angers Fentimans managing director

Oct 31 2009 by Linda Richards, The Journal

A US state has banned the sale of a soft drink made in the North East to anyone who not yet turned 21.

Officials in Maine have re-classified Fentimans Victorian Lemonade as “imitation liquor”, with the State Attorney General saying it is too strong because of the trace alcohol – less than 0.5% - contained in the drink.

Earlier this week, The Journal told how a storm had blown up over the Northumberland-based company’s drink, after the alcohol content on its label was brought to the attention of a high school principal by one of his pupils.

Under state law, “imitation liquor” means any product containing less than half of 1% alcohol by volume which appears to imitate by appearance, taste and smell liquor.

But Fentimans, which is based in Hexham, Northumberland, is challenging a decision that Eldon Robson, managing director and master brewer, feels is an alarming over-reaction.

He said: “People are being silly about the whole thing. It’s absolutely ridiculous and has been blown out of all proportion.”

Mr Robson is the great grandson of Thomas Fentiman who founded the firm in Gateshead in 1905, when he was given a recipe for ginger beer.

The company closed in the mid-1960s, but Mr Robson re-established the business in 1988 using traditional methods to botanically brew a range of soft drinks. He said: “We sometimes complain about the United Kingdom being a nanny state, with rulings about having enhanced criminal records bureau disclosures to pick your children up from the playground, so we are certainly not immune to this sort of official over-reaction.

“However, my feeling is that at Fentimans we take responsible drinking very seriously and I feel that we are being punished out of ignorance.

“I have a particular objection to the re-classification of our drinks as ‘imitation liquor’. Our strapline is ‘faithful to the originals’ and Fentimans does not imitate anything.”

Mr Robson added: “According to the Licensing Act of 1990, Chapter 21, a product containing not more than 0.5% of alcohol can be sold and merchandised as a soft drink. All Fentimans products comply with these regulations.”

Fentimans products average approximately 0.3% of alcohol while a pint of beer is on average 4% ABV.

“To match this, a consumer would typically have to drink 28 bottles of Fentimans,” he said. “This is physically impossible and the body’s natural metabolism would rid the body of alcohol anyway in the time it took to do this.

“All food flavours contain ethanol as a solvent, so there is at varying degrees a small amount of trace alcohol in most food products, including bread and fruit juices. We need to have a well informed and intelligent discussion about this, and I would welcome the opportunity to do so with the official bodies responsible.

“This is my family business, which has been going for over 100 years and I feel very strongly that the premium quality and exceptional provenance of our drinks are being seriously undermined.”

The debate has also fuelled interest in the company’s products with inquiries flooding in from people from more than 30 US states and from Canada asking where they can buy it.

And a distributor from Mexico is among the latest to inquire about selling Fentimans in their country.