The hospitable proverb in Chinese culture says, “It is not enough to drink with a bosom friend even a thousand cups of wine.” Especially in banquets and festival celebrations, people always drink "wine" to expand joyful atmosphere. Common alcoholic beverages include beer, wine, vodka and so on. The rights owner of a whisky brand once reported to the Macao Customs that “There was a sale of suspected counterfeit whisky of his brand in the market”. Those products were seized and sent to the Department of Food Safety. After analysis, it was found that this batch contained excessive levels of methanol and other harmful chemicals. If consumers drink too much of these counterfeit spirits unintentionally, their health will be in danger.

 

Process of making alcohol

The brewing process that is complicated, starting from picking ingredients, cooking, mashing, fermentation, distillation to ageing. It takes a week to several years or longer time. During the alcohol-making process, many compounds are naturally formed, for an example, 10% to 15% of ethanol, commonly known as alcohol, is produced by yeast fermentation. Likewise, other impurities are simultaneously produced, including methanol, various higher alcohols, ethyl carbamate and other metabolites. Certain types of impurities actually give a unique flavour to the liquor whereas some others are harmful to human health. In general, limiting the amount of alcohol consumed per week is deemed as an "acceptable risk" to health. However, long-term alcohol abuse or inadvertent drinking of alcoholic beverages containing excessive harmful impurities is detrimental to health, and may result in acute or chronic alcohol poisoning.

 

What is Fake Liquor?

Fake liquor usually refers to packaging that infringes the property rights of the legitimate origins and brand name; or, the ingredients do not meet the requirements of the laws and regulations respective to the country of production or sales, such as containing the excessive amounts of harmful substances, adulterating with cheap industrial alcohol, colourings, spices, etc. Due to the failure to obtain a production license or commercial permits issued by the local government, it is only sold in bulk or counterfeit other brands. In fact, an incident of fake liquor is a common problem around the world. In Europe, Asia and America, there are yearly reports of illegal trade of fake liquor, or alcoholic poisoning and death from drinking the fake one. Therefore, fake liquor is one of the current global issues on the counterfeit and food safety.

 

Why are Counterfeits in alcohol products?

According to the “Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health” released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014, the annual average of worldwide alcohol drinking was 6.2 litres of pure alcohol consumed per person aged 15 years or older, equivalent to 13.5 grams of pure alcohol per day. The most consumed alcoholic product in the world was spirits with high alcohol content, accounting for 50.1% of the total sales among alcohols then followed by 34.8% of beer. It is apparent that there is a tremendous demand and supply in alcohol products, because it involves of huge economic interests and very lucrative. In particular, counterfeiting of famous and expensive alcoholic drinks, such as whisky, vodka and sorghum liquor, can obtain higher net profit margins.

 

What is Inferior Liquor?

The factories producing inferior quality of liquor are usually in poor sanitation, fitted with aged and worn equipment, haphazard manufacturing process and lack of quality control. Rotten or mouldy food ingredients are often used for winemaking. The end products generally contain high levels of mycotoxins, heavy metals and harmful chemicals. Long-term intake of these has adverse effects on human health. Moreover, the immoral manufacturers do not repeatedly distil the wine in the sake of cost-cutting so it leads to high levels of harmful volatile impurities, mostly methanol, retained in the alcoholic beverages.

 

What are the harmful effects of methanol on human health?

Methanol is not toxic itself, but is oxidised into toxic formaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) in human body, then is subsequently oxidised to the highly toxic formic acid via aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). In a short period of time, the body is able to catabolize small quantities of formic acid into harmless carbon dioxide and water; then, both are excreted from the body. However, the presence of excessive levels of formic acid can inhibit the cellular aerobic respiration, causing cells to be hypoxic and necrotic. Meanwhile, the formic acid accumulated inside the cells increases the acidity of organ tissues. A peracid environment can impede cell metabolism and impair organ function. “Metabolic Acidosis” caused by methanol has a significant adversely influenced on human nervous system, e.g., blindness as a typical consequence. In severe cases, the victims suffer from unconscious, developing organs failure and even death.

 

Does Genuine Liquor contain methanol?

Grains, potatoes and fruits containing pectin are the raw ingredients mainly for making the alcoholic beverages. When pectin is broken down by an enzyme in the process of alcohol fermentation, methanol is produced naturally. Repeated distillation of the alcohol is the best effective way to reduce the levels of impurities. Heating the liquor several times converts the methanol and other volatile impurities into ethanol (i.e. drinking alcohol) and extractable substances. It helps to decrease the quantities of harmful impurities and increase the purity and concentration of alcohol in liquors.

 

Worldwide regulations on alcohol products

Nowadays, many countries, such as China, the United States, Australia, and the European Union, have specific requirements for the safety and quality of alcoholic beverages and have enacted relevant laws and food safety standards. For instance, alcohol products are classified by its alcohol content. The amount of harmful impurities is constrained by the Maximum Residue Limits. Restricting the types of food additive applies in alcohol production. These measures aim to regulate and control the quality of alcoholic beverages.

Nevertheless, the criteria adopted in food safety are quite different from the wine critics’ rules utilized in determining the price of alcohol products, which take account of ‘colour, aroma, flavour, the strength and persistence of aftertaste, brand reputation and customer loyalty’. Hence, the price of alcohol products is not directly related to the safety level.

 

What are the effects of alcohol on human health?

Other than beer and red wine, which offer small amounts of nutrients like vitamin B12 and anthocyanidins, the hazards of alcohol outweigh its nutritional contribution; so, it is advisable to drink less alcohol. According to the “Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health” released by the World Health Organization, it reports more than 200 diseases caused by drinking habits such as cirrhosis, cancers, cardiovascular disease and so on. Globally, there are approximately 3.3 million deaths every year from alcohol-related diseases and accidents. The most worry is the increasing tendency of young drinkers. Moreover, alcoholic drinkers are mainly taking spirits worldwide. Long-term alcoholism results in alcohol dependence, impairment of physical coordination, osteonecrosis of femoral head, cognitive impairment and susceptible to mental disorders. Infants, children, youth, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers have to avoid alcoholic beverages because it impedes the physical and intellectual development of the minors.

It is acceptable for adults to drink moderate alcohol. The public can refer to the recommended daily intake of alcohol by the “Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2016)”. An adult male should take less than 25 grams of alcohol whereas a female is 15 grams. The following table shows the recommended intake of various alcoholic beverages (Converted from weight to volume):

 

Recommended Daily Intake of Alcohol by the “Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2016)”

Alcohol by Volume	5%	12%	40%
Alcoholic Beverages	Beer & Fruit Cider	Red Wine, White Wine & Champagne	Brandy, Whiskey, Vodka & Sorghum Liquor
Adult Male	750ml	250ml	100ml
Adult Female	450ml	150ml	75ml

For a health perspective, the public should strive for self-controlling the daily intake of alcohol to avoid metabolic burden and alcohol intoxication.

 

How can we reduce food safety risks in purchasing alcoholic drinks?

Food establishments, bars and retailers should buy alcohols from liquor merchants or licensed agents of genuine alcohol products for use in compliance with law. They ought to keep the transaction records to trace the origins of the commodities when necessary. The alcohol products from unknown sources or delivered in bulk must not be sold to the public, and any beverages containing alcohol should not be served to teenagers and pregnant women. As for consumers, they should control their alcohol intake and refrain from alcohol during illness and taking medication. That may adversely affect the health. If you feel unwell after drinking alcohol, seek for medical advice immediately. Finally, consumers should stop drinking any alcohol products while having doubts of its quality and safety.