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. 2016 Sep;40(7):537-42.
doi: 10.1093/jat/bkw046. Epub 2016 Jul 11.

Estimates of Ethanol Exposure in Children from Food not Labeled as Alcohol-Containing

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Estimates of Ethanol Exposure in Children from Food not Labeled as Alcohol-Containing

Eva Gorgus et al. J Anal Toxicol. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

Ethanol is widely used in herbal medicines, e.g., for children. Furthermore, alcohol is a constituent of fermented food such as bread or yogurt and "non-fermented" food such as fruit juices. At the same time, exposure to very low levels of ethanol in children is discussed as possibly having adverse effects on psychomotoric functions. Here, we have analyzed alcohol levels in different food products from the German market. It was found that orange, apple and grape juice contain substantial amounts of ethanol (up to 0.77 g/L). Furthermore, certain packed bakery products such as burger rolls or sweet milk rolls contained more than 1.2 g ethanol/100 g. We designed a scenario for average ethanol exposure by a 6-year-old child. Consumption data for the "categories" bananas, bread and bakery products and apple juice were derived from US and German surveys. An average daily exposure of 10.3 mg ethanol/kg body weight (b.w.) was estimated. If a high (acute) consumption level was assumed for one of the "categories," exposure rose to 12.5-23.3 mg/kg b.w. This amount is almost 2-fold (average) or up to 4-fold (high) higher than the lowest exposure from herbal medicines (6 mg/kg b.w.) suggested to require warning hints for the use in children.

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