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By JERRY LYNOTT jlynott@leader.net
Sunday, March 16, 2003 Page: 1D
WILKES-BARRE – Being certified to produce organic products suits The Lion
Brewery to a tea. Otherwise, Steap green tea soda would be made somewhere
else.
The new brand carries the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic label, a
designation earned because of the ingredients and process used to make the
soft drink.
“I think it’s important,” brew master Leo Orlandini said of the
certification. “From our point of view this is one more thing that sets us
apart.”
The Lion is the first brewery in the state to achieve the certification
since new federal rules went in to effect last October.
It had to be certified by a USDA accredited firm and sought out the
expertise of Quality Assurance International of San Diego. It also had to
devise a plan to meet federal standards on everything from how the ingredients
are stored and handled to being able to verify that the finished product is
organic.
In the case of Steap soda, the tea from Sri Lanka has to have been grown
without the use of most conventional pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides or
chemicals. The same with the Florida sugar cane used to sweeten the drink.
“Everything has to be tracked,” said Orlandini. If a government inspector
takes a bottle of the soda from a store shelf and requests The Lion to back up
the USDA label, the brewery has to supply documentation to prove the product
is authentically organic.
“If we can do organic products, we can do anything,” Orlandini said.
subhed: Soda timed to hit stores in spring
After a weekend of prepping, the brewery will do a fourth production run on
Monday. Lines have to be cleaned and equipment readied to ensure only the
proper ingredients are used.
Eric Schnell, co-founder of The Heavenly Beverage Co. that contracted with
the brewery to make the soda, will be on hand as another 50,000 cases are
made.
The brewery’s reputation for quality and the variety of beverages produced
here attracted Schnell. “They had the capability and they were local,” he
said. He can drive up from Newtown in Bucks County for the production runs.
Schnell said he pitched the idea to the brewery and it agreed to go through
the certification process.
The first bottles were capped Dec. 16. The six-flavor line features cola,
raspberry, lemon dew, orange, Key lime and root beer. The store price of $1.59
per bottle has not been an issue for consumers, Schnell said.
The reception so far has been phenomenal, and the soda drew a lot of
attention at a recent food expo in Anaheim, Calif. “We had some major
beverage players just congratulating us,” Schnell said.
There aren’t many organic sodas on the market and there’s only one organic
green tea soda, said Schnell. “We have no competition.”
The introduction of the soda is being timed to be on store shelves for the
beverage season that lasts from April to December. The soda company has lined
up 1,500 supermarkets nationally including Wegmans, which has stores in
Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Banking on his experience as the president of a tea company, Schnell teamed
up with Steve Kessler, who has experience in the health food industry, to
launch the soda. The concept was simple: Take popular mainstream beverages and
“make healthier versions of them,” Schnell said.
But a healthy soda? “Look at the ingredients. Look at the manufacturer who
took the pains to source alternative ingredients,” replied Schnell. “Our
sugar is actually a good sugar not bad for your body.”
The organic evaporated cane juice mixed into the sodas comes from Florida
Crystals Food Corp.’s farm in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The company is the largest and only producer of organic sugar in the United
States, said Mike DeLuca, vice president of the Florida Crystals’ natural food
group.
DeLuca knew Schnell from his days in the tea business and helped him get
the ball rolling for his soda. “We are committed to the whole organic
movement,’ DeLuca said.
No herbicides are used in growing the sugar cane and the ground water is
not contaminated as a result. The company rotates its organically grown rice
and sugar cane crops. It also undergoes regular inspections by Quality
Assurance International to maintain its organic certification.
subhed : Annual audits ensure certification compliance
Once a company is certified organic, it’s good forever, said Andrea Caroe,
vice president of certification services for QAI. But annual audits are
conducted to ensure compliance because of changes in areas such as equipment
or personnel at certified firms.
For the brewery, for example, to have the authority to put the USDA organic
label on its products, said Caroe, it submits a plan to QAI for review.
If the plan is acceptable, an inspector goes to the brewery to verify it’s
operating under the plan. QAI based on the inspector’s review would then
certify the brewery.
Likewise, the certificate can be revoked for not complying with the federal
rules.
Federal standards for organic foods have been on the books since 1990. Just
last year the government added to the standards to ensure uniformity among
certifiers, said Caroe. Firms like QAI must be accredited by the USDA.
Though there is uniformity among certifiers, that’s not the case with
certification. “It depends upon the operation,” said Caroe. “There’s a huge
difference” between a company making a 30-ingredient salad dressing and one
handling raw apples, she said.
Proof of The Lion’s certification can be found on the back of Steap
bottles. Both the USDA organic and QAI labels are affixed. So is the label of
the Organic Trade Association – of which the soda company is a member.
Still a niche market, organic food and beverages sales are growing
annually, said Barbara Haumann, spokeswoman for the Greenfield, Mass.-based
association.
Tea showed an average annual growth rate of 149 percent between 1996 and
2000, according to the association’s 2001 Manufacturers’ Market Survey.
Juices/sodas showed a 10 percent growth. The largest jump was 2030 percent for
frozen/refrigerated juices.
Consumers looking for healthy alternatives turn to organic products, said
Haumann.
They reason, she added, if it’s “good for the earth and good for the soil,
then in turn must be good for people.”
Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7237.