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I just viewed this interesting video about radioactive ethanol from plants as opposed to non-radioactive ethanol from crude oil. In it, the professor says he's heard it's illegal in the USA to sell alcoholic drinks if they are not radioactive from carbon-14 isotopes. Is this true?

As I've commented in reply to horatio's comment:
I'm not particularly worried about the implications of the radioactivity, as I indeed understand this type of radioactivity can be expected to be found in others types of food / drinks as well. Rather I am curious as to whether this is actually a way of measuring whether ethanol in drinks is not tampered with by mixing it with ethanol from petroleum.

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Without getting into a discussion of radioactivity and its implications (bananas are measurably radioactive), I would question the conclusion that the purported radioactivity is the reason for any supposed regulation. Instead, consider the possibility that regulation of the production and sale of ethanol intended for human consumption is more stringent for safety reasons (and sin taxes). – horatio Apr 28 '11 at 13:44
@horatio: I'm not particularly worried about the implications of the radioactivity, as I indeed understand this type of radioactivity can be expected to be found in others types of food / drinks as well. Rather I am curious as to whether this is actually a way of measuring whether ethanol in drinks is not tampered with by mixing it with ethanol from petroleum. – fireeyedboy Apr 28 '11 at 14:15
Would you mind adding this to your original question. It's very interesting question I believe, but at the first glance looks like yet another "omg government is trying to poison us all with radiation" type ;) – user288 Apr 28 '11 at 16:51
@Sejanus: Hmm, yeah I see your point. I formulated it a bit tendentious and/or sensational. I'll try to rephrase it a bit more neutral. – fireeyedboy Apr 28 '11 at 17:06
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From Richard A. Muller's book The Instant Physicist

Radioactive Alcohol

The US government has decided that alcohol for human consumption must be made from "natural" materials, such as grains, grapes or fruit. That regulation rules out alcohol made from petroleum.

Natural alcohol gets its carbon from plants; the plants got the carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is radioactive because of the continued bombardment of cosmic rays that collide with nitrogen molecules and turn it into C-14, radiocarbon.

Petroleum was also made from atmospheric carbon, but it was buried hundreds of millions of years ago, isolated from the radioactive atmoshphere. Radiocarbon has a half-life of about 5700 years, and after 100 million years, there is nearly no atom of C-14 left.

This means that lack of radioactivity in alcohol indicates it was made from petroleum.

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You may solve the problem by adding a little bit of Plutonium-239 :) – belisarius Apr 28 '11 at 17:37
I may be incorrect, but at least in the US petroleum-derived ethanol is only legal as fuel and has to be "denatured" (have something added, usually methanol or kerosene) in order to render it undrinkable and also so it won't be taxed as liquor. – Monkey Tuesday Apr 28 '11 at 19:38
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So how long can you age that whisky until it becomes illegal to drink? – starblue Apr 29 '11 at 8:04
@starblue 60,000 years. Max. – Rusty May 11 '11 at 14:32
@belisarius: Probably not -- they presumably test for beta decay, and Pu-239 is an alpha source. – Charles May 26 '11 at 20:00
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