Worldwide Illicit and Counterfeit Alcoholic Spirits: Problem, Detection, and Prevention

Figures & data

Table 1. European Union (including UK) lost jobs due to counterfeit spirits 2016–2017.^[26,27]

Sector of lost employment	Jobs lost
Agriculture	8600
Food industry	6100
Wholesale trade	1200
Retail trade	700
Land transport	700
Security services	700
Investigation services	700
Legal service	500
Accounting	500
Employment services	500

Table 2. Frequent illicit liquor toxic materials.

Compound	Location	Health consequence	Reference
Methanol	China, Russia, USA, UK, Brazil, Poland, more	Blindness	^[^33]
Ethyl-phthalate and Carbamates	Lithuania	Carcinogen	[^34]
Cyanide derivatives	Brazil	CNS toxicity	[^36]
Carbamates	Brazil	Carcinogen	[^35]
Toxic metals	China		[^36]
Acetaldehyde	Lithuania	Several health issues. Highly reactive and toxic	[^37]

Table 3. International rest of world deaths from counterfeit spirits (2005–2015).

Country	Year	Deaths (hospitalizations)	Reference
Cuba	2013	7 (41)	^[^39^]
Czech Republic	2012	38	[^40^,^33]
Ecuador	2011	23	^[^41^]
Kenya	2014	55	^[^42^]
Kenya	2005	130	^[^42^]
Libya	2013	101	[43]
Uganda	2010	80 (1066)	[44]

Table 4. News related death announcements in India.

Heading of article	Date of publication	Reference
Toxic alcohol ‘laced with methanol’ kills at least 99 people in India	11 February 2019	^[^46^]
India: dozens dead after drinking methyl alcohol	27 July 2022	^[^47^]
Bootleg liquor kills at least 150 in India’s largest mass alcohol poisoning	23 February 2019	^[^48^]

Table 5. Deaths in India from counterfeit spirit (1976–2022).^{[46–48,50–57]}

Year	Location	Deaths
2022	Gujarat	42
2019	New Delhi	154
2019	Uttar Pradesh	100
2015	Mumbai	90
2013	Uttar Pradesh	40
2012	Punjab	18
2012	Orissa	31
2012	Andhra Pradesh	17
2011	West Bengal	168
2011	Pradesh	17
2011	Sang Rampur	170
2010	Uttar Pradesh	10
2010	Kerala	23
2010	Uttar Pradesh	35
2009	Orissa Bolangir	30+
2009	Delhi	30+
2008	Tamil Nadu	148
1992	Odisha	200
1987	Gujarat	200
1981	Karnataka	308
1980	Haryana	44
1976	Gujarat	100
Total Indian deaths		1975

Table 6. Deaths in Iran and Sudan from counterfeit spirits poisoning (2004–2018).

Year	Sickened	Died	Reference
Iran
2004	62	11	^[^59^]
2013	694	6	[^59^,^60]
2018	768	96	^[^60^]
Sudan
2011	137	71	^[61^]

Table 7. Technologies used in the detection of counterfeit spirit.

Technique	Description	Reference
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)	This technique will vaporise a sample and flow the vapor along with an inert carrier gas through a thin or constricted tube called a column. The purpose of the column is that different components of the sample flow at different rates. The column is fabricated in a fashion that causes different interactions between the vapor and the column, depending on specific characteristics. The column is typically heated and as the compounds and inert gas exits the tube, there is a detection apparatus. If this detector is a mass spectrometer, this technique is called GC-MS. Other detectors can include thermal conductivity detectors and flame ionization detectors. Each detector has its specific applications. For instance, the flame-based detectors are most frequently used when the sample under test is hydrocarbon based. Both GC and GC-MS are excellent technologies that can provide information that can be admissible in most courts. If available and practical it is always a first choice. However, the systems can be expensive to purchase, expensive to maintain consumables and often will require a highly skilled and trained operator. In addition, they are not portable or handheld.	[^89^]
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)	This technique uses a column packed with a separation medium. The sample in liquid phase is injected through the column and different specific compounds will separate through differential migration. The sample continues to flow as the compounds segregate in the column. As the sample liquid that is now segregated by compounds emerges it is passed through a detector that will generate time-based spectra. The detector can be chosen to best analyze the sample under test and can include UV-visible spectrometry, a photodiode, or a mass spectrometer.	^[Citation75,Citation90^]
Schlieren optical technique	This technique tracks changes in refractive index in an optically uniform and transparent medium. Columnated light passes through the medium and produces a shadow image on a screen or detector. If no effect causes media perturbation, there is no shadow image. When there is an effect that causes a distortion in the otherwise uniform media, an effect is manifest on the detector or screen. This effect is useful when all components under study are transparent. In this case, the transparent media is deionized water that is continuously flowing in a carrier stream. Precise volumes of the spirit sample test under test are injected into the carrier stream. The physical system limits mixing, and the detector looks at refractive index gradients. The collected data is analyzed using the supervised chemometric method SIMCA (Soft Independent Modelling by Class Analogy).	^[^91^]
^1H NMR	This is a method to observe the spin-flip of the hydrogen nucleus with the application of sweeping radio frequency (RF) energy typically under 100 MHz. This spin-flip coupling occurs at a ‘resonance’ which is when the spin flips from one orientation to another. The antenna or resonator coil produces an RF pulse which causes the spin flip at resonance, then subsequently measures the energy that is emitted when the protons return to their initial alignment. While all isolated protons would behave similarly, close by electrons provide shielding effects, reducing the RF-proton coupling. NMR data is very good at determining structural information of intact molecules from very small samples with little sample preparation.	^[Citation79^]
Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES)	This method will detect elements in a sample. The device is two systems – the plasma generating system and the spectroscopy system. The plasma generating system will use RF coils to produce a plasma in typically argon gas. The sample under test is introduced in the small concentration in the argon plasma. The charged plasma ions of the argon will collide and interact with the sample producing sample charged ions. The second system is an optical spectrometer that can determine the optical emission of the excited elements. The brightness of each characteristic emission is proportional to concentration. The detected spectra can be compared with previously measured reference spectra to determine concentration. Compounds are not detected because the conditions in the plasma will decompose compounds to their constituent elements.	^[Citation72^]
Headspace solid phase microextraction (SPME)	A method of capturing either liquid or volatile compounds on a prepared fiber and subsequent detection using the previously described GC-MS. Here a fiber is coated with a material that will absorb specific compounds. The fiber is typically housed and protected in the bore of a hypodermic or sample needle. During sample collection the prepared fiber is introduced to the sample, adsorbing material. At this point the fiber is removed from the sample and subsequently introduced to a GC-MS system where fiber heating causes de-absorption of compounds and allows the compounds to be introduced to the GC-MS for analysis. The fibers do not cause harm to the sample under test, can be reusable, and do not generally require solvents. This is a low-volume selective sampling technique for GC-MS.	^[Citation78^]
Chemical ionization mass spectroscopy (CIMS)	This technique uses an approximately 99% chemical ionization reagent and approximately 1% compound under test and a variety of ionization means including photon impact, electron impact or other means to produce ionization of a sample. After ionization the compound fragments are introduced to a conventional mass spectrometer. Significant values of CIMS are that a variety of ionizing methods can be used as well as a variety of reagent gases.	^[Citation85^]
Raman spectroscopy	An optical technique to provide characteristic spectra of chemical compounds. Because of the ability to characterize samples quickly and accurately, handheld devices can be used to detect many types of contraband including counterfeit spirits. While these devices can be quite compact, allowing investigators to quickly and oftentimes through the bottle, determine if a sample is genuine or has been adulterated.	^[Citation30,Citation87^]
ZnO	Initially small patches of evaporatively deposited Zn are fabricated on a ceramic substrate that is subsequently oxidized. Different durations of oxidation and different temperatures during oxidation change the characteristics of each patch. Each small patch subsequently has conductive electrodes deposited at each end for connection to an electrical resistance measuring system. As ethanol is absorbed on the deposited patches, the resistance of the ZnO changes and corresponds to the concentration of adsorbed materials. Upon drying the resistance returns to original baseline.	^[Citation70^]
Paper spray mass spectrometry film array	A straightforward method of collecting a small liquid sample on an absorbent porous paper that is connected to a high voltage power supply. This is an extension of electrospray ionization which is perhaps more commonly known. A solvent is added to the paper-based sample and an applied voltage creates ions in free space of the sample material. As the droplets are in free space and are moving under the applied field, the microdroplets dry and in turn become gas phase materials as they enter the mass spectrometer for conventional analysis.	^[Citation88^]
Alcoholic spirits methanol test strips	One method not reviewed: These inexpensive products test for very low concentrations of methanol, and if this is a concern, are recommended, but do not test for or give any indication of any other adulterant. Current EU limits for naturally produced methanol in spirit drinks is 0.4% (v/v) methanol at 40% (v/v) ethanol. All techniques reviewed can adequately detect this level.	^[Citation92^]
Chemometrics	While there are several techniques that either collectively or individually known as chemometrics, many of them attempt to classify data, oftentimes in a new or abstract coordinate frame such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or Partial Least Squares – Discriminate Analysis (PLS-DA). Papers will frequently mention pattern recognition. This is a consequence of chemometric methods – taking a large data set and finding in the data previously unseen clustering that indicates some commonality.	^[Citation30,Citation70,Citation72–75,Citation87^]

Table 8. Grouped technologies used in detection of counterfeit spirit including success/detection rate.

Group	Technology	Success/Detection rate	Reference
1. Analytical techniques with no statistical component	GC-MS, HPLC	Complete detection	^[Citation90^]
	High resolution gas chromatography with FID	Complete detection	^[^84^]
2. Analytical techniques with some statistical data reduction	Pattern recognition	>90%	^[^89^]
	Schlieren effect	100%, 93%	^[^91^]
	Chemical ionization mass spectroscopy	92%	^[^85^]
	Headspace solid phase microextraction	94%	^[^78^]
	^1H NMR	95%	^[^79^]
	ICP AES	95–100%	^[^72^]
	GC-MS	88%	^[^95^]
	GC-MS	‘Wide range’	^[^96^]
3. Optical detection with no statistical analysis	Ultrasound + UV Visible spectroscopy	‘Promising’, none stated	^[^97^]
4. Optical detection with statistical evaluation	UV-visible spectroscopy + Chemometrics	>90%	^[^73^]
	Handheld Raman + Chemometrics	‘Promising’	^[^87^]
	Handheld Raman + Chemometrics	‘Promising’	^[^30^]
	UV-visible spectroscopy + Chemometrics	Similar to HPLC	^[^75^]
	UV-visible spectroscopy and Chemometrics	86.3%	^[^70^]
	ICP AES + Chemometrics	>94%, 98%	^[^72^]
	UV-visible spectroscopy and chemometrics	‘Effective’	^[^74^]

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