Is it safe to drink Bitters & Soda when pregnant and expecting?Updated 2 years ago
We're going to give you the long answer so that you can be informed about Bitters & Soda and make the choice that is right for your health and that of your baby.
As stated in this Wikipedia entry, in the US, products that contain 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) or less may be labeled as "Non-Alcoholic." In the case of Bitters and subsequently Bitters & Soda, the presence of alcohol is a byproduct of the bitters making process. Hella Bitters (the concentrated form, not the sparkling water form) are all-natural, non-GMO verified, alcohol-based flavor extracts. Hella uses alcohol because it is the purest solvent and an all-natural preservative, delivering the highest quality bitters possible. The government defines bitters as a "non-beverage," meaning simply that the flavor is too potent to drink on their own. It's that potency that means one only needs to use minute amounts to help flavor our Bitters & Soda. Although there are trace amounts of alcohol in our Bitters & Soda, it is below the legal limit of 0.5% ABV. Furthermore, many commercially available natural flavors are also alcohol-based. On an extremely granular level, many of the enhanced sparkling waters on the market would also read more than 0.0% ABV.
Some everyday and unexpected food and beverage products have trace amounts of alcohol, including hot sauces, sugar-free gum, protein bars, over-ripe fruit, non-alcoholic wines & beer, sparkling apple cider, yogurt, and even rye bread! One particularly famous example is Kombucha. This fermented tea is not alcohol-free but has less than the legal limit of 0.5% ABV. Some home-brewed Kombucha can have as much as 3-4%. Consuming these products is considered safe by some and avoided lock, stock, and barrel by others. Some pregnant women will be comfortable with trace amounts of alcohol during their pregnancy. They might follow European cultural practices where it's customary to imbibe lightly. But if you avoid products like these because of the possibility of trace amounts of alcohol, then you should avoid Hella Bitters & Soda as well.
Here is an article about Bitters & Soda written by a new mother and editor at the Food Network. She professes to have made mixed up her own using alcohol-based bitters throughout her pregnancy and was delighted to find that, now, Hella had done the work for her: https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/shopping/2019/06/best-bitters-soda-drink-hella-cocktails