The Threat to Quality of Alcoholic Beverages by Unrecorded Consumption

The World Health Organization estimates that globally out of the 6.2 L of pure alcohol consumed per person (15 + years), 25% is unrecorded alcohol. Unrecorded alcohol is defined as alcohol not registered in the legislation where it is consumed and includes homemade, surrogate, and counterfeit alcohols. Since the production, distribution, and consumption of unrecorded alcohol is not under official quality control and regulation, the risk of unrecorded alcohol containing potentially hazardous substances [e.g., methanol, acetaldehyde, aflatoxins, heavy metals, toxic denaturants such as diethyl phthalate (DEP)] may be higher than that for recorded alcoholic beverages. Consequently, the consumption of such beverages may expose drinkers to morbidity and mortality. For example, research conducted in 2017 on Kenyan artisanal beers collected from slums found 50% aflatoxin contamination. In this chapter we extensively review the epidemiology, chemical composition, health consequences citing a case story of the problem of unrecorded alcohol from Kenya, and also suggest plausible policy interventions to address the challenges posed by unrecorded alcohol.