Fake drinks. Memo: how to distinguish fake alcohol from the real one

On the eve of the upcoming New Year, the volume of sales of alcoholic products increases sharply. Unscrupulous dealers take advantage of this and actively throw counterfeit alcoholic products on the market.

The Department of Licensing and Trade of Primorsky Krai gives some advice on how to protect yourself from purchasing illegal and low-quality alcoholic products.

Why is counterfeit alcohol dangerous?

Fake alcohol may contain methanol - methyl, or wood alcohol. It is also called technical, it is a terrible poison, and it is from it that people die or become disabled.

As with regular ethyl alcohol, once in the bloodstream, methyl alcohol passes through the liver, where, like its safer counterpart, it is oxidized by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If not for this chemical reaction, technical alcohol would not carry any danger: by itself, it does not have high toxicity. Therefore, the first thing that a person who has drunk such alcohol feels is the usual symptoms of intoxication.

However, under the influence of ADH, methanol is converted into formaldehyde and formic acid. These products are extremely harmful to health: they damage the central nervous system, in particular the retina and optic nerve, leading to blindness and severe poisoning with failure of the kidneys and other internal organs.

Where can you buy alcohol?

Only organizations can sell alcohol, not individuals. Low-alcohol drinks - beer, cider, mead can be sold by both companies and individual entrepreneurs. You can buy alcohol only in outlets that have a license for the retail sale of alcoholic products. A copy of the license must be displayed prominently in the Consumer Corner. When selling a drink along with a bottle, you must be given a receipt. Any sale of alcohol by hand or through an online store is illegal.

How to distinguish fake alcohol by a bottle or a label?

As a rule, legal producers pour alcoholic products into consumer containers that have special distinctive features (original corrugations, embossing, etc.). The label and back label must be pasted evenly without distortions.

How to distinguish counterfeit alcohol by a federal special stamp or excise stamp?

All alcoholic products produced in the territory of the customs union are pasted over with federal special stamps, and imported alcoholic products are pasted over with excise duty stamps. Such marking confirms the payment of excise duty on each bottle produced by alcoholic beverages.

To visually recognize the authenticity of such brands, you can use the following recommendations:

1. They are printed on self-adhesive paper, which has a special UV emission;

2. Copper holographic foil with a pattern and repeating images of the Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and the abbreviation "RF" is pressed onto paper for printing excise stamps for alcohol in 2014;

3. A security thread with an irregular window has been inserted into the paper. The window shows the image applied to the thread in the form of pink stripes. Under the influence of ultraviolet light, the image is visualized as the abbreviation "RF" in pink, blue and yellow-orange colors in an oval ring;

4. The abbreviation "RF" is printed on the reverse side of the stamps;

5. An element printed with color-shifting ink changes color from purple to brown depending on the viewing angle;

6. The stamp number is printed by inkjet printing and consists of three digits indicating the grade and nine digits of the stamp number itself;

7. The information on the brand and label of the bottle must match. Here are the name of the alcoholic product, the type of alcoholic product, the capacity of the container, the fortress, the name of the manufacturer and its location.

How to identify fake champagne?

It is possible to distinguish what is in front of you - soda with alcohol or real sparkling wine (champagne) by the bubbles. Throw something into the champagne glass, like a cherry. If it instantly becomes covered with small and frequent bubbles - you have real champagne in front of you. If the bubbles are large and rare, they will quickly float to the surface - in front of you is a fake. By the way, any object thrown into a bottle of soda is covered with just such bubbles.

How to identify fake vodka?

It's about checking the appearance of the drink before buying it. There are signs, the presence of which should motivate you to choose another vodka or even a store.

1. Price. As of December 2015, in accordance with the order of Rosalkogolregulirovanie, a bottle of vodka with a capacity of 0.5 liters with an ethyl alcohol content of 40 percent must be sold at retail for at least 195 rubles per bottle. Accordingly, if the capacity of a bottle of vodka is one liter, then the price is twice as expensive. If you prefer a certain brand of vodka, then you should know the average price of a bottle. If in one of the stores the price is 15-30 percent lower, then the risk of buying fake vodka there increases several times. Miracles do not happen, the cost of the same vodka in different stores cannot differ much.

At the same time, it should be noted that earlier it was the low price that gave out fake vodka, but now the counterfeiters have wised up and in most cases sell their surrogate at the price of the original. Therefore, related factors must be taken into account;

2. Color. Real vodka is absolutely transparent without turbidity and sediment at the bottom. To check this, just turn the bottle upside down, hold it for a few seconds and look through it at the sunlight. Vodka should not have third-party particles, orange, light yellow and other shades. If the color changes, then you have poor purification vodka, the alcohol or water of which contains third-party impurities.

How to distinguish ordinary alcohol from technical?

In some cases, it is possible to determine low-quality alcohol only after the bottle is opened. How to distinguish an alcoholic surrogate?

Methyl alcohol in appearance and smell does not differ from ordinary ethyl alcohol.

Therefore, the main protection against poisoning is the purchase of drinks in proven places.

If for some reason you suspect that alcohol is fake, try checking it at home:

If you set fire to a strong drink based on ethyl alcohol, then it should burn with a blue flame, while burning methanol has a green color;
if the drink is transparent, throw a small piece of raw potato into the bottle: in technical alcohol it will turn pink, and in vodka it will remain white;

If you heat a copper wire on a fire and lower it into a liquid, then methanol will give itself out with an unpleasant pungent smell of formaldehyde, ethanol does not smell at all during the test.

Of course, the wisest thing to do would be to refuse tasting in any doubtful case, even if chemical experiments did not reveal anything suspicious.

How to understand that he was poisoned by a surrogate?

The insidiousness of methanol intoxication lies in the fact that its first symptoms are too similar to the consequences of ordinary drunkenness: a person may complain of dizziness, nausea, severe weakness.

However, other warning signs develop within a few hours. It can be:

Severe pain all over the body;

Deterioration of vision, in which the picture before the eyes can swim and obscure dancing spots appear;

Slow heartbeat and breathing;

A coma in which a drunk person does not respond to external stimuli and does not wake up.

Such symptoms are a sign of great trouble. If you suspect methanol poisoning, you need to urgently call an ambulance and start providing first aid on your own.

On the eve of the upcoming New Year, the volume of sales of alcoholic products increases sharply. Unscrupulous dealers take advantage of this and actively throw fake alcoholic products on the market, so take note of this informational article.

Why is counterfeit alcohol dangerous?

Fake alcohol may contain methanol - methyl, or wood alcohol. It is also called technical, it is a terrible poison, and it is from it that people die or become disabled.
As with regular ethyl alcohol, once in the bloodstream, methyl alcohol passes through the liver, where, like its safer counterpart, it is oxidized by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If not for this chemical reaction, technical alcohol would not carry any danger: by itself, it does not have high toxicity. Therefore, the first thing that a person who has drunk such alcohol feels is the usual symptoms of intoxication.
However, under the influence of ADH, methanol is converted into formaldehyde and formic acid. These products are extremely unhealthy: they damage the central nervous system, in particular the retina and optic nerve, leading to blindness and severe poisoning with failure of the kidneys and other internal organs.

Where can you buy alcohol?

in the Russian Federation, only organizations can sell alcohol, but not individuals. Low-alcohol drinks - beer, cider, mead can be sold by both companies and individual entrepreneurs. You can buy alcohol only in outlets that have a license for the retail sale of alcoholic products. A copy of the license must be displayed prominently in the Consumer Corner. When selling a drink along with a bottle, you must be given a receipt. Any sale of alcohol by hand or through an online store is illegal.

How to distinguish fake alcohol?

As a rule, legal producers pour alcoholic products into consumer containers that have special distinctive features (original corrugations, embossing, etc.). The label and back label must be pasted evenly without distortions.

All alcoholic products produced in the territory of the customs union are pasted over with federal special stamps, and imported alcoholic products are pasted over with excise duty stamps. Such marking confirms the payment of excise duty on each bottle produced by alcoholic beverages.

To visually recognize the authenticity of such brands, you can use the following recommendations:
1. They are printed on self-adhesive paper, which has a special UV emission;
2. A copper holographic foil with a pattern and repeating images of the Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and the abbreviation "RF" is pressed onto the paper for printing excise stamps;
3. A security thread with an irregular window has been inserted into the paper. The window shows the image applied to the thread in the form of pink stripes. Under the influence of ultraviolet light, the image is visualized as the abbreviation "RF" in pink, blue and yellow-orange colors in an oval ring;
4. The abbreviation "RF" is printed on the reverse side of the stamps;
5. An element printed with color-shifting ink changes color from purple to brown depending on the viewing angle;
6. The stamp number is printed by inkjet printing and consists of three digits indicating the grade and nine digits of the stamp number itself;
7. The information on the brand and label of the bottle must match. Here are the name of the alcoholic product, the type of alcoholic product, the capacity of the container, the fortress, the name of the manufacturer and its location.

QR codes will allow each buyer to check the legality of alcohol

From July 1 of this year, new rules for the retail sale of alcoholic beverages came into force in the Russian Federation: each bottle sold will be registered in a special database, and a QR code on the receipt will allow the buyer to track the history of production and sale of purchased alcohol. But market participants are skeptical about the innovation of the federal authorities.

The history of the existence of a unified state automated information system (EGAIS) begins in 2006, when manufacturers of alcoholic beverages were obliged to register their products in it. In 2015, wholesalers were connected to EGAIS, who began to record goods purchased from manufacturers in the system. And from the middle of this year, the final link - the buyer in the store - will be “connected” to the MANUFACTURER-BUYER chain. Thus, the state, represented by the Federal Service for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market, will be able to control the entire chain of movement of goods from production to sale.

The technical side of the process looks like this:

Image is clickable

The cashier must have a scanner at the checkout, which is able to read the necessary information from a special or excise stamp. After scanning, it is processed by the EGAIS cash register module and transmitted with an electronic digital signature to the Rosalkogolregulirovanie server. Thus, accounting is carried out in the "online" mode.

The sequence of actions of the cashier will look like this:

Image is clickable

The buyer brings products to the checkout, among which there is alcohol;
The cashier reads the barcode of the goods;
When reading the code of an alcoholic product, the cashier will have to read one more barcode from the bottle (or box);
If the reading is successful, the product is added to the check, otherwise the sale of this product is canceled;
The cash register software generates a special file and sends it to the EGAIS data server;
The check is closed with the printed slip of alcoholic products and the buyer, having read the QR code from the slip of alcoholic products, can check its legality.

This is how the slip with the QR code looks like:

Image is clickable

If, when reading the barcode during the sale, the server does not form a slip, then you will not be able to buy alcohol: either the sticker with the barcode is unreadable, or the product is counterfeit.

How to understand that he was poisoned by a surrogate?

The insidiousness of methanol intoxication lies in the fact that its first symptoms are too similar to the consequences of ordinary drunkenness: a person may complain of dizziness, nausea, severe weakness.
However, other warning signs develop within a few hours. It can be:
- severe pain throughout the body;
- deterioration of vision, in which the picture before the eyes can swim and obscure dancing spots appear;
- slow heartbeat and breathing;
- a coma in which a drunk person does not respond to external stimuli and does not wake up.
Such symptoms are a sign of great trouble. If you suspect methanol poisoning, you need to urgently call an ambulance and start providing first aid on your own.

First aid for alcohol poisoning

First of all, having discovered alcohol poisoning in a person, it is necessary to call emergency help. Waiting time should not be wasted. It is necessary to take a number of necessary measures to alleviate the patient's condition and try to remove some of the poisons from the body.

The most effective first aid is to wash the patient's stomach. This causes the victim to vomit. The patient should drink a soda solution or boiled water with the addition of potassium permanganate. It is necessary to help him by irritating the tongue with a finger or a spoon. Extreme care should be taken so that the patient's vomit does not enter his respiratory tract, causing suffocation. It is necessary to give his body a horizontal position and turn his head to the side. Inducing vomiting prevents further absorption of alcoholic toxins into the blood, and prevents the development of coma from a pre-coma state;

Holding the tongue of the patient, you should collect mucus from his tongue and mouth with a medical pear;

First aid may include drinking plenty of fluids for the patient. However, treatment in this way is not always appropriate, with violations of breathing and swallowing reflex, the victim may choke on the liquid;

When the patient stops breathing, resuscitation should be undertaken by cleaning the oral cavity and performing artificial respiration. When the pulse slows down, the patient should be given an injection of cordiamine under the skin;

In case of loss of consciousness, it is necessary to ensure an immediate flow of blood to the vessels of the brain. To do this, quickly and intensively rub the patient's auricles;

Alcohol poisoning leads to excessive vasodilation in the victim. Heat leaves the body very quickly. Therefore, when providing assistance, you need to wrap the patient in a warm blanket or put warm woolen clothes on him;

To stimulate the heart, first aid may include chest compressions. If a person does not know how to properly perform massage manipulations, you should massage the tip of the nose, the areas under it and the lower lip. Irritation of active points stimulates cardiac activity and respiration;

First aid for alcohol poisoning must certainly be accompanied by oxygen access for the patient. It is necessary to loosen constricting clothing, unbutton the collar, and ensure the ventilation of the room, even in winter. If possible, it is better to move the patient to fresh air;

Alcohol poisoning implies severe intoxication of the body. Therefore, first aid at home must be followed by treatment in a hospital in order to thoroughly cleanse the patient's body of toxins and poisons that poison vital organs. Outpatient treatment may consist of a set of measures aimed at detoxifying the body, in severe cases, after transferring the patient to the hospital, resuscitation measures follow.

How to distinguish fake alcohol from the real one? Below are some simple ways:

Before reading the information below, remember the most important thing when buying alcohol - SAVE YOUR PURCHASE RECEIPT!

If you buy champagne

You can distinguish what is in front of you - soda with alcohol or real sparkling wine (champagne) by the bubbles. Throw something into the champagne glass, like a cherry. If it instantly becomes covered with small and frequent bubbles - you have real champagne in front of you. If the bubbles are large and rare, they will quickly float to the surface - in front of you is a fake. By the way, any object thrown into a bottle of soda is covered with just such bubbles.

If you buy vodka

1. Price. The minimum retail price for vodka was increased from June 13, 2016 to 190 rubles per 0.5 liter. Accordingly, if the capacity of a bottle of vodka is one liter, then the price is twice as expensive. If you prefer a certain brand of vodka, then you should know the average price of a bottle. If in one of the stores the price is 15-30 percent lower and there is no active promotion, then the risk of buying fake vodka there increases several times. The cost of the same vodka in different stores cannot differ much.
At the same time, it should be noted that earlier it was the low price that gave out fake vodka, but now the counterfeiters have wised up and in most cases sell their surrogate at the price of the original.

2. Color. Real vodka is absolutely transparent without turbidity and sediment at the bottom. To check this, just turn the bottle upside down, hold it for a few seconds and look through it at the sunlight. Vodka should not have third-party particles, orange, light yellow and other shades. If the color changes, then you have poor purification vodka, the alcohol or water of which contains third-party impurities.

3. Pay attention to the sticker of the excise duty stamp. (This has been discussed above). When the cork is rotated, this sticker is damaged. If the brand is easily removed or folded back without any problems, without leaving any marks on the bottle, then you most likely have a fake, or the products of an enterprise that does not comply with the technology.

4. Give preference to well-known companies and brands.

5. Do not buy vodka from your hands. Buy alcohol in specialized stores or well-known large hypermarkets.

6. The cork should not scroll freely.

7. If you have doubts about the quality of products, ask for a certificate of conformity and a quality certificate.

8. If you buy imported vodka, make sure that the series and numbers of the excise duty stamp, which is pasted on the bottle, match the series and numbers in the certificate of conformity. Moreover, on the glass of such vodka there should be laser marking (numbers and letters applied with small black dots). The marking cannot be erased.

9. Pay attention to the label. It must indicate the date of manufacture of the product, the code of the enterprise and the number of the license for production. Moreover, branded labels are glued evenly. On fakes, these rules are not respected.

10. Turn the bottle over and shake it in a circular motion. A “snake” should appear, which is formed by small bubbles. If, at the same time, the bubbles are large and quickly disappear, it is safe to assume that you have a fake in front of you.

11. Notice if there is a whitish residue on the glass of the bottle. If a precipitate is present, this indicates that the alcohol is diluted with plain water.

12. There is an opinion that industrial vodka leaves a mark. To do this, the bottom of the bottle is scrolled in the palm of your hand. There is a trace of the conveyor.

If you buy wine

Warnings about the need to check labeling with excise stamps and the availability of documents certifying the quality of alcoholic products are also true for wine.

1. If you buy collectible wines, check for additional labels indicating “Collection, additionally aged”, etc. As a rule, a collar is glued to the neck of the bottle indicating the vintage year of the grapes from which the wine is made.

2. If the wine is controlled by the origin of the names, the bottle will have the inscription “Wine of the controlled by origin names”, and the back labels will schematically depict the territory of the region where the wine is made, with the designation of vineyards.

Another very important point: many taste deficiencies that are clearly contained in wine (spoiled, with foreign flavors, etc.) can be masked by adding sugar. As a consequence, the wine will taste sweet or very sweet. Often, this is found in sparkling (champagne) or effervescent (carbonated) wines.
Therefore, if you really want to enjoy good wine, you should opt for dry or semi-dry drinks.

3. Pay attention to the quality of the cork. If the cork crumbles when screwing the corkscrew, then most likely it is overdue. This means that the quality of the wine is not so important to the manufacturer. The only thing that matters is the amount of money you earn. If you have a receipt, you can return this wine.

4. Do not buy wine at a suspiciously low price.
Very often, fruit and berry and indeed any other flavored wines contain special preservatives (additives) of artificial origin, which are harmful.
In order to determine whether artificial colors have been added to wine, you can use one of the simplest methods:
-Pour the wine into a small vial, close the mouth with your finger, then lower it into a container of clean water and remove your finger. Real wine will not dissolve in water. If this happened, then you have a fake.

There is another way. Take ordinary chalk and put a few drops of wine on it. Wait a little. If, after drying, the stain becomes light, then the wine is free of artificial colors. If it turned into any other color, then dyes are present.

If you buy cognac

1. You already know about the check of excise stamps and the availability of quality documents.

2. Pay attention to the density of cognac.
Turn the bottle upside down. If the cognac is expensive and of high quality, a heavy drop should fall from the bottom of the bottle, and traces of runoff will remain on the walls. Fake or low quality cognac will drain down the walls very quickly.

After purchase, the quality of cognac can be checked in the following ways:
-Pour cognac into a special glass (snifter). Touch your finger to its outer wall and see if your fingerprints remain on it. If yes, it is safe to say that this is a genuine drink.
- The taste of vanilla, present in cognac, can often indicate its fake, because. they are often masked by flavorings added to cognac.

3. It is noteworthy that Hennesy XO cognac is not produced in a volume of 0.5 liters (only 0.35 and 0.7).
It is even rumored that sales of this type of cognac in the world exceed its production by three to four times. In other words, only every third or fourth bottle of Hennessy is an original. Everything else (about 80 percent) is fake.

If you buy whiskey

1. Good whiskey can't be cheap.

2. Pay attention to the appearance of the bottle. For example, a sign of fake Jameson whiskey is: the absence of an embossed inscription on the bottle, as well as a plastic shell on the cap.
There may also be an incorrectly pasted or poor quality label. Incorrect labels on lids.

3. High-quality whiskey is always transparent (this indicates the purity of water and compliance with production technology) and does not contain sediment.

4. Shake the whiskey well and look for bubbles. They should last a long time and be large.

Unfortunately, very often a fake from the original can be distinguished only after purchasing the product. So, if whiskey reeks of alcohol and does not have a light oak or malt aroma characteristic of it, then you have a fake.

How to distinguish ordinary alcohol from technical?

In some cases, it is possible to determine low-quality alcohol only after the bottle is opened. How to distinguish an alcoholic surrogate?

Methyl alcohol in appearance and smell does not differ in any way from ordinary ethyl alcohol. Therefore, the main protection against poisoning is to buy drinks in trusted places.
If for some reason you suspect that alcohol is fake, try checking it at home:
- if you set fire to a strong drink based on ethyl alcohol, then it should burn with a blue flame, while burning methanol has a green color;
-if the drink is transparent, throw a small piece of raw potato into the bottle: in industrial alcohol it will turn pink, and in high-quality vodka it will remain white;
- if you heat a copper wire on a fire and lower it into a liquid, then methanol will give itself out with an unpleasant pungent smell of formaldehyde, ethanol does not smell at all during the test.

Of course, the wisest thing to do would be to refuse tasting in any doubtful case, even if chemical experiments did not reveal anything suspicious.

The Site Administration reminds that excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages is harmful to your health.
This resource does not promote the use of alcohol.

Many people would like to know the taste of real cognac, tequila, whiskey and other elite, which costs a considerable amount of money. But at present, this "weakness" is used by numerous scammers who offer buyers, passing it off as noble and elite. Often you can get a fake before the holidays, at a time when the demand of buyers for these products increases significantly. Even if it is a high-quality fake that will not bring any harm to health, however, its taste will still be very different from a natural product.

It is worth knowing that most often scammers counterfeit branded alcohol brands in order to earn as much money as possible at a lower cost. And the buyer of such products will experience not only real disappointment after opening the bottle, but a severe hangover in the morning, poisoning or an allergic reaction.

Most often, it is possible to distinguish burnt alcohol from the real one only after the bottle is opened and its contents are tasted. In this case, it will be especially unpleasant if elite alcohol was presented as a present for the holiday.

Unfortunately, when buying alcoholic beverages, it is impossible to check the quality and taste of the drink, to evaluate its smell, so you have to trust the sellers' information. But before buying expensive alcoholic drinks, you should know that there are a large number of signs by which you can quickly and easily distinguish a fake even at the time of purchase and save your money and health.

When buying any alcohol, be sure to pay attention to the excise stamp, cost and label of the bottle, which will make it easy to recognize counterfeit:

• The label on the original is always glued evenly and neatly, while on counterfeit alcohol it is almost always crooked or oblique. The label of most expensive alcoholic products feels like a banknote to the touch. In addition, on it you can find all the information about the drink, and not a certain part of it.
• The excise stamp is glued to expensive alcohol at the same time along the side face of the cork and neck, because when you open the bottle, it should not be damaged.
• The cost of elite, and most importantly, natural alcohol is always high, so it is not recommended to pay attention to cheap goods, because the original taste of such a drink is not inherent.

There are some features of elite alcoholic beverages that you need to pay attention to.

Unfortunately, such an alcoholic product as vodka is most often counterfeited. In addition, a fake is often harmful to health, since it contains a large amount of poisonous oils.

We choose correctly:

Since there are not so many elite brands of wine, it is much less often counterfeited.

The following tips will help you distinguish real alcohol from a fake:

There are several ways to find out if there are artificial colors in a drink:

1. You need to pour wine into a small vial, cover the neck with your finger, and then lower the vial into a bowl with a small amount of clean water. After that, you need to take your finger and watch the reaction, if the wine dissolves - this is a fake.
2. You can try to put a few drops of wine on white chalk and wait a bit. If it changes color, it means that the drink contains dyes and other harmful additives; if the color remains the same, then there are no artificial additives in the wine.

When buying cognac, follow the following:

• When choosing cognac, it is important first of all to pay attention to the density of the drink and correctly distinguish it. You can do this simply by turning the bottle upside down and determining the density of the liquid - if immediately after the flip a large drop fell from the bottom, then the cognac is of high quality, and the drink is aged for at least 5 years.
• In a bottle filled to the top, it is easy to determine the density of cognac by the bubbles that form immediately after the bottle is turned over. If at first the bubbles are large, and then they begin to separate into small ones, then this drink is natural and of high quality.
• The original cognac is distinguished by a soft and delicate taste, as well as a light pleasant aroma. But the smell of alcohol when opening the bottle indicates poor quality. The taste of vanilla, which is often drowned out by flavors added to the drink, can also tell about a fake.
• Checking product quality documents and excise stamps will also help you find out if it is real cognac or not.

Whiskey lovers need to know the following:

• The transparency of the drink notifies the buyer about the quality of the water from which the whiskey is made, and compliance with all technologies for the production of the product. Whiskey may have some shades, but it should not be thick, cloudy or have sediment or coating.
• Bubbles in a natural drink, when shaken, stay in the bottle for a long time and do not become small. In addition, they run down the walls of the bottle for quite a long time, while fake products instantly flow over the glass base.
• The original and high-quality drink has a malt or oak aroma, while there is no smell of alcohol in the drink.

Cognac "Hennessy"

According to statistics, worldwide sales of this cognac significantly exceed the production of this alcoholic product. Therefore, at least 80% of the products are fake, while only 1 bottle out of 4 can be called natural. Such a drink is sold in bottles with a capacity of 0.35 and 0.7 liters. Otherwise, the product is considered counterfeit. If the cork does not tightly close the bottle, this indicates that the cognac is not factory-made. On the front side of the natural product, the manufacturer's corporate logo should be located - a hand with a halberd, which is not on the fake.

Whiskey Jameson

• On a natural bottle of this whiskey, there is a metal cork that is not coated.
• Also on the original there are two similar relief inscriptions at once. The first, "Product of Ireland", is located at the bottom under the label, while the second, "John Jameson", is located at the bottom of the back of the bottle.

Tequila "Olmeca"

• The cap on a bottle of real tequila is smooth.
• The entire bottle of the original Olmeca tequila is characterized by an uneven relief and if you run your hand over its surface, you can feel the roughness.
• Among the pattern on the label, you can see two circles located between the bends, while on the fake, instead of circles, an oval is drawn.

As you can see, distinguishing a fake from real alcohol is quite simple, especially if you know some of the nuances and secrets of choosing alcohol.

Finding out the quality of alcohol before you are taken away in an ambulance is quite problematic. But maybe let's figure out how to identify a fake before you are taken to the hospital.

Appearance of the bottle

Before buying expensive alcohol, open the official website of the manufacturer - there are enough photos that show the shape of the bottle, the features of the labels, and the details of the engravings. It is difficult to fake all the details and markings of a bottle, and often a fake can be identified even by the appearance of the container.

But, unfortunately, even the original bottle does not guarantee the quality of the contents. Empty used bottles of famous drinks are sold on eBay. And a fake can be prepared from concentrate and alcohol:

Excise stamp

An excise stamp is a sign that the manufacturer has paid a tax on alcohol. The state knows that such a bottle exists and, in theory, is responsible for the quality of its contents. Drinks are classified by strength and composition, excises for each class differ in color. There are four main excise stamps for strong alcohol, nine for wine. FS RAR even released .

Some excises appeared only in 2015, so in the store you will often find cognac with the brand "Strong spirits" than "Cognac". And sake can be both "Wine drink" and "Alcoholic drink over 9 to 25%". All this is confusing.

It is easier to check the brand using the application of the Federal Service "Rosalkogolregulirovanie" - "AntiCounterfeit Alco". Here is for smartphones on iOS, Android and Windows.

Check in the store

Since July 1, a system for controlling the sale of alcohol - EGAIS - has been operating in Russia, its use is mandatory for all sellers. The system receives data from manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers.

Sellers who work according to the rules issue a special receipt with a QR code. The EGAIS check will not be issued if you buy beer, if you ordered alcohol in a cafe or restaurant, or if you buy alcohol in a settlement with a population of up to 3 thousand people (these checks will be issued there only from July 2017). In the cities of Crimea, the Unified State Automated Information System will work only from 2017, and in small settlements on the peninsula - from 2018.

In other cases, the seller is required to issue such a check. This is a guarantee that you are being sold legal alcohol. Before buying, ask the seller if they work in EGAIS. If they don't work, leave. If the store works according to the rules, the seller first scans the barcode, then the excise stamp, and then issues a special check with a QR code, like this.

The smell of the drink

If you do not have the sense of smell and the experience of a sommelier, then you are unlikely to be able to distinguish by smell - French is cognac or something bottled at a small factory in the suburbs. If you are still lucky enough to have a keen sense of smell, then let the drink stand in a glass for a few minutes. The aroma has disappeared, but the smell of alcohol remains - in front of you is a fake, do not risk it.

In the production of counterfeit alcohol, methyl alcohol is often used instead of ethyl alcohol, which does not differ in smell and taste. When it enters the human body, methyl alcohol decomposes into dangerous substances - formaldehyde and formic acid. 30 ml of methyl alcohol will kill a healthy adult male.

When to check

The law says quite clearly: only organizations can sell alcohol, but not individuals. Low-alcohol drinks - beer, cider, mead can be sold by both companies and individual entrepreneurs.

You can buy alcohol only in stationary outlets, that is, stores. When selling a drink along with a bottle, you must be given a receipt.

Any sale of alcohol by hand or through an online store is illegal. True, in Krasnoyarsk it was decided to close online alcohol stores only after the death of 7 customers.

How to distinguish fake alcohol by bottle or label?

Unfortunately, the honest answer to this question is no. Trying to guess by the shape of the bottle, the color of the cap or the label, what is poured inside is a game of roulette.

Krasnoyarsk alcohol market professionals believe that the only way to insure is to buy drinks in specialized stores. Well, a bottle of elite whiskey cannot cost 500 rubles and be sold in a stall or via the Internet under the guise of duty-free goods. In any case, it will not be possible to remember all the distinctive bulges of the bottle and cork, the availability of the necessary labels for each brand - each brand has a great many of them.

Of course, you can ask the seller for a certificate or a license to sell alcohol. But if you are not a professional merchandiser, you are unlikely to understand something. You can and certainly need to look at the presence of excise stamps on the bottle. But keep in mind - they are also successfully faked.

The director of the Krasnoyarsk company "Septima" Alexandra Protasova believes that it is worth checking the stickers on the bottle even in specialized stores and supermarkets:

— An excise stamp is a kind of guarantee of quality. Keep in mind that all alcohol in the Krasnoyarsk Territory must have two stamps - the usual excise and issued by the Yenisei Alcohol Association. And of course, always ask for a check. You will never be given a counterfeit check.

Why is counterfeit alcohol dangerous?

All right, if instead of elite whiskey or cognac they sell you tinted or diluted vodka - well, they overpaid 10 times, but they didn’t get poisoned.

But sometimes a bootlegger can easily sell methanol in a branded bottle - methyl, or wood alcohol. It is also called technical, it is a terrible poison, and it is from him that people die or become disabled.

Methyl alcohol

Source: medicfoto.ru

As with regular (ethyl) alcohol, once in the bloodstream, methyl alcohol passes through the liver, where, like its safer counterpart, it is oxidized by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If not for this chemical reaction, technical alcohol would not carry any danger: by itself, it does not have high toxicity. Therefore, the first thing that a person who has drunk such alcohol feels is the usual symptoms of intoxication.

However, under the influence of ADH, methanol is converted into formaldehyde and formic acid. These products are extremely harmful to health: they damage the central nervous system, in particular the retina and optic nerve, leading to blindness and severe poisoning with failure of the kidneys and other internal organs.

How to distinguish ordinary alcohol from technical

In some cases, "scorched" alcohol can only be determined after the bottle is opened. How to distinguish an alcoholic surrogate?

Methyl alcohol in appearance and smell, unfortunately, does not differ in any way from ordinary ethyl alcohol.

Therefore, the main protection against poisoning is the purchase of drinks in proven places. Contrary to stereotypes, the use of homemade tinctures and moonshine, made according to all the rules by you personally, is unlikely to be fraught with such intoxication. Still, it is better to give preference to products that have all the necessary documents.

If for some reason you suspect that alcohol is fake, try checking it at home:

• if you set fire to a strong drink based on ethyl alcohol, then it should burn with a blue flame, while burning methanol has a green color;
• if the drink is transparent, throw a small piece of raw potato into the bottle: in industrial alcohol it will turn pink, and in vodka it will remain white;
• if you heat up a copper wire on a fire and lower it into a liquid, then methanol will give itself out with an unpleasant pungent smell of formaldehyde (the same one that is sometimes abundant in the Krasnoyarsk air); ethanol does not smell at all during the test.

Of course, the wisest thing to do would be to refuse the tasting in any doubtful case, even if your chemical experiments did not reveal anything suspicious.

How to understand that you were poisoned by a surrogate

The insidiousness of methanol intoxication lies in the fact that its first symptoms are too similar to the consequences of ordinary drunkenness: a person may complain of dizziness, nausea, severe weakness.

However, other warning signs develop within a few hours. It can be:

• severe pain throughout the body;
• deterioration of vision, in which the picture before the eyes can float and obscure dancing spots appear;
• slow heartbeat and breathing;
• a coma in which a drunk person does not respond to external stimuli and does not wake up.

Such symptoms are a sign of great trouble. If methanol poisoning is suspected, in no case should one wait for it to “let go”. You need to call an ambulance and start providing first aid on your own.

How to help with methanol poisoning

Paradoxically, the main antidote for technical alcohol poisoning is ethyl alcohol. The main thing is to make sure that the vodka with which you intend to solder the patient is not “scorched”, like the one that caused the poisoning. If you doubt the quality of the antidote or the causes of poisoning, do not try to save anyone on your own. In any case, call an ambulance!

The fact is that ADH in the liver works not only with methanol, but also with ethanol. There is a limited amount of enzyme in the body, and ordinary alcohol is absorbed better than technical alcohol, so you can stop the pathological process by organizing competition for ADH molecules. Perhaps this will buy you time if for some reason (for example, the party was in the country or far outside the city) professional medical assistance cannot arrive to you quickly. The approximate dose of the antidote is 40-50 ml of vodka every 3 hours (or 1-2 grams of 96 ° alcohol per 1 kg of the patient's weight). The exact proportions can tell you the ambulance dispatchers.

Important! Ethyl alcohol is not a cure, it is just a slight delay in developing complications!

It is possible to really help a patient with methanol poisoning only in a hospital setting - with the use of diuretics, droppers, and in serious cases - even hemodialysis (artificial kidney apparatus).

First private ambulance

Phone in Krasnoyarsk: 2-03-03-03
Website www.2-03-03-03.ru
Services:
– ambulance (children's and adult teams)
– home doctor (pediatrician, surgeon)
– transportation of patients
- tests, injections at home
- duty at solemn, sports, corporate events

There are contraindications, you need to consult a specialist

The representative of the Krasnoyarsk "First Private Ambulance" Ksenia Laletina believes that at the first sign of alcohol poisoning, doctors should be called in immediately.

And even while waiting, do not try to self-medicate or provide first aid on your own, the expert urges:

“Self-medication can be dangerous. As practice shows, cases of poisoning with low-quality alcoholic products are always severe, which means that the patient must be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. All our ambulances are prepared for the immediate transportation of the patient: these are various stretchers, resuscitation kits, and even the male staff of the teams. And this is important, because help will be provided faster than if there were fragile women in the brigade.

Should we rely on the state?

From 2016, an automated state control system for the sale of alcohol will be launched in Russia, which will track each bottle produced, imported into the country and sold to consumers using a special code. It is called EGAIS, they have been trying to introduce it in different variations and with varying success for several years, but experts fear that even this will not give a hundred percent guarantee of quality.

- Unified State Automated Information System leads to market enlargement and its specialization. That is, to get rid of unscrupulous players who trade in low-quality and dangerous goods. On the other hand, at the very beginning of the introduction of this system, I think there will be many failures. Judge for yourself, the software is Russian, and the annual number of transactions in the system is expected to exceed the number of transactions on Facebook. I think that in the end it will be debugged, but at first it will definitely be a mess, - Konstantin Lapytsky, director of the Vinoteka chain of stores, predicts

And remember - by drinking suspicious drinks, you risk not only your life (a quick death does not require much courage), but long years of blindness and helplessness, which will become grief not only for you personally, but also for people close to you.

Be smart and healthy!