Hillbilly Popstar,
orange juice contains way less methanol than brandy from high pectin fruits. I google 140mg/lt average in orange juice. And the EU limit for a 40%abv spirit is 5400mg/lt. This limit is surpassed often.
You ask for a study. After I had posted a study. There are many studies. Simply google words like brandy and methanol. A study about fermented whole kumquats you would have to write yourself though. The question is, if I have to prove that it is unsafe or you have to prove it is safe. Normally at least in this forum you have to prove the safety. Like in the plastics discussion for example I cannot say you have to prove food grade silicon being unsafe.
NormandieStill,
I also wondered about the resume of the pdf. Because the tables and the german text tell a different story.
Perhaps you could look at the table on page 3. There are three numbers to each fruit. First number is the methanol content in a fermented must without added enzymes, the second number is with added "new" enzyme and the third number is with added "old" one. Yes, the very low pectin fruits don't show a rise in methanol using the new enzyme, but the high pectin fruits do. And only for high pectin fruits using enzymes makes sense.
Most extreme example: "Quitte Robusta 7150 32850 38350"
And also here in this thread we talk about a high pectin must.
And in picture 3 ("Abb.3") you can see that the new enzyme doesn't liquefy as much as the old one.
A 2001 study tried to establish safe limits and came to a conclusion that up to 2% methanol by volume in a 40% abv drink could be tolerated with a safety factor of 4. The EU limit is set at 0.4% and from memory only certain years production actually came close to exceeding that limit.
The whole text is:
Thus, assuming that an adult consumes
4x25-ml standard measures of a drink containing 40%
alcohol by volume over a period of 2 h, the maximum
tolerable concentration (MTC) of methanol in such a drink
would be 2% (v/v) by volume. However, this value only
allows a safety factor of 4 to cover variation in the volume
consumed and for the effects of malnutrition (i.e., folate
deficiency), ill health and other personal factors (i.e.,
ethnicity). In contrast, the current EU general limit for
naturally occurring methanol of 10 g methanol/l ethanol
[which equates to 0.4% (v/v) methanol at 40% alcohol]
provides a greater margin of safety.
The study shows that it is normally safe to drink a normal amount of a spirit with 5 times higher methanol levels than the EU allows. It doesn't show long time effects.
If I say, I drank a Whisky from a still glued together with silicone and I am feeling fine, is it a prove that silicone is safe? Of course not.
But yes, probably Demys and Hillbilly Popstars brandies are all right, although maybe breaking the EU methanol limits. But I don't think it is wrong to utter those concerns here in Demys thread.
EricTheRed,
is this a study or advertising:
The pectolase mix is used to break down pectin and proto-pecting in fruit to:
- increase the juice yield from fruit and to;
- prevent methanol formation during fermentation and to;
- enhance the amount of fermentable sugars in the fruit.
