Joshua Tracey had stopped to buy his girlfriend Lizzie Turvey a drink at an Esso BP garage in Lincoln, Lincs, on Thursday because she wasn’t feeling well.

Joshua Tracey, 20, had picked up a bottle of Smart Water at an Esso BP garage in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, on his way home from shopping with his girlfriend Lizzie Turvey. But as the liquid contains electrolytes, which can also be found in energy drinks, the woman at the cashier asked him to prove that he was over 18.

Electrolytes are salts and minerals, such as sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate, which can conduct electrical impulses in the body.

They can help to provide an energy boost and prevent muscle cramps, feelings of sickness and fatigue.

Joshua, who lives in Newark, asked the BP garage employee whether she was being serious.

‘The woman behind me was wetting herself – she was laughing the whole time,’ he said.

‘But the cashier woman said, “no, no I need to see ID”. I did have ID on me but I did refuse a little bit because it was ridiculous.

‘She just said she’ll let me off this time.’ A number of retailers have voluntarily banned under 16s from buying energy drinks in recent months due to concerns that they contain high levels of sugar and caffeine.

Smart Water contains only spring water and electrolytes. ‘I just grabbed the Smart Water because it was the only water there.

I thought it was ridiculous to be fair. I know they ID for energy drinks but not water,’ Joshua said of the exchange on February 28.

‘What if a child needed water because they weren’t feeling well or because of the hot weather and they couldn’t buy it.’

A member of staff at the Esso BP garage said it was not common practice to ID people for water.

 

 

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