Determination and Evaluation of Methanol, Ethanol and Higher Alcohols in Legally and Illegally Produced Alcoholic Beverages

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrated the results of ethanol, methanol and higher alcoholic contentsof the legally and illegally produced alcoholic samples. For investigation, the samples, which werecollected as evidence by officers from the crime scenes or illicit production sites, were sent to ourlaboratories by prosecutions. 96 Turkish Rakı samples, 8 beer samples, 1 wine sample, 101 other strongdrink samples, thus totaling 206 samples, and 2 industrial ethanol samples were examined betweenyears 2015-2017. Fast and reliable analysis of the alcoholic beverages, especially in terms of methanolconcentration, has vital importance primarily due to the cases of death arose from metabolic acidosisafter consumption of illicit alcoholic beverages with high concentration of methanol produced inclandestine laboratories. In the autumn of 2015, an outbreak of mass methanol poisonings took placeand so many people died in Istanbul. An HS-GC-MS system was utilized for qualitative analysis of thehigher alcohols and for scanning any volatile compound, whereas the determination of ethanol andmethanol concentrations an HS-GC-FID system was performed. So, after all results were investigated indetail, mentioning the key points for evaluations, it was clearly described whether the drinks comply withcriteria set by Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Distilled Alcoholic Beverages. 89 of 96 Rakı samplesand 90 of 101 strong alcoholic beverages were not definitely compliant with the Communiqué since theycontained either tert-butanol, which is a denaturant, or high levels of methanol.