Abstract
Cheap licit and artisanal illicit spirit drinks have been associated with numerous outbreaks of alcohol poisoning especially with methanol. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of cheap spirit drinks in Kibera slums in Nairobi County, Kenya. The samples consisted of cheap licit spirits (n = 11) and the artisanal spirit drink, ‘chang’aa’, (n = 28). The parameters of alcoholic strength and volatile composition were used as indicators of quality and were determined using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) respectively. The ranges for alcoholic strength were 42.8–85.8% vol and 28.3–56.7% vol for chang’aa and licit spirit drinks respectively, while the pH ranges were 3.3–4.2 and 4.4–4.8 for chang’aa and licit spirit drinks respectively. The majority of volatiles were found in artisanal spirits and they included higher alcohols, ethyl esters and carbonyl compounds. The alcoholic strength of all the artisanal spirits (100%) and 91% of the licit spirits was above the 40% vol of standard spirits such as vodka. The high ethanol content of the alcohol products was the only element of public health significance in this study.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) categorizes alcoholic beverages into recorded and unrecorded alcohol products [1]
Recorded alcohol products are those whose consumption is registered and licit while unrecorded alcohol includes homemade and artisanal drinks such as chang’aa, unregistered or counterfeited drinks and non-beverage or surrogate alcohols derived from medicinal products, automobile products or cosmetics [1,2,3]
The production and consumption of the artisanal spirit was first banned in Kenya in 1980 through the Chang’aa Prohibition Act of Kenya but due to the failure to mitigate against the harm arising from the drink, it was legitimized in 2010 by the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill of 2010 of Kenya
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) categorizes alcoholic beverages into recorded and unrecorded alcohol products [1]. Recorded alcohol products are those whose consumption is registered and licit while unrecorded alcohol includes homemade and artisanal drinks such as chang’aa, unregistered or counterfeited drinks and non-beverage or surrogate alcohols derived from medicinal products, automobile products or cosmetics [1,2,3]. Chang’aa is an artisanal illicit spirit drink obtained from distillation of liquor from fermented maize grains. The alcoholic content of chang’aa is enhanced by addition of sucrose to the fermenting mash before distillation. The production and consumption of the artisanal spirit was first banned in Kenya in 1980 through the Chang’aa Prohibition Act of Kenya but due to the failure to mitigate against the harm arising from the drink, it was legitimized in 2010 by the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill of 2010 of Kenya. The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), a government standards body, introduced regulation KS 2326:2011 [4] for the spirit
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