Don’t spray ethyl alcohol on your food, warns FDA

Thailand’s FDA is cautioning people against spraying ethyl alcohol onto their food, under the misguided belief that this will get rid of Covid. While used in the making of sanitiser gel and other products, ethyl alcohol is not supposed to be eaten as it is toxic.

The TFDA says there are different grades of alcohol, such as food-grade alcohol, which can be used, in tiny amounts, for cooking. Ornsurang Teerawat, who works as a food standards expert at the FDA, says food-grade alcohol needs to meet standards set by the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

Ornsurang went on to say that the temperature one would use to cook rice is sufficiently hot to kill Covid. The TFDA did not mention in their discussion of the uses and grades of ethyl alcohol how many people were spraying the substance on food or where they got the idea to do that.

SOURCE: Thai PBS