PORTLAND (AP) – Don’t be surprised if you’re carded – even if you’re 40 – while ordering drinks or buying beer at area businesses.

Following a recent undercover sting of 35 Portland bars and convenience stores that led to 20 summonses for selling alcohol to underage customers, a number of establishments are now being more vigilant in who they ask for identification.

At the Flatbread Co. restaurant, the owners now have employees card anyone ordering drinks who looks under 40.

“You know, the way people are aging these days, with plastic surgery, we upped it to 40 for the hell of it,” said Flatbread’s managing partner, Bob Morgan.

At Sebago Brewing Co., manager Mike Boutin has posted copies of a newspaper article about the recent sweep for employees to see.

“I’d be surprised if everyone isn’t posting it and telling bartenders and servers,” Boutin said. “They’re going to be a lot more strict now.”

Concerns about underage drinking led the Maine Legislature to pass a law in 2005 that requires identification from alcohol buyers of alcohol who look under 27.

Many stores, bars and restaurants go by that benchmark, but are free to raise the bar to any age they want.

The Portland Sea Dogs card all people who want to buy beer or wine at Hadlock Field, regardless of age.

Charlie Eshbach, Sea Dogs president and general manager, said the policy protects the company should law enforcement ever catch a minor drinking in the stands.

“They know we’re carding everybody,” Eshbach said. “The presumption would be that somebody else gave it to them.”

Becca Matusovich of the state Office of Substance Abuse agrees that people these days are looking younger than their true ages, making bartenders’ jobs harder.

“It raises the likelihood that someone who looks 22 could be 30, instead of 18,” said Matusovich. “Then it lowers your threshold for challenging people who look 22.”

Jasper Ziller, who’s 41, didn’t mind being asked for his driver’s license during a pizza dinner at Flatbread Co. last week with his wife and two children.

“I was a little surprised,” Ziller said. “I get carded once or twice a year at best.”

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