All local authorities in Scotland have been asked to conduct searches of off-licences in their area after further seizures of 'deadly' fake vodka over the weekend.
Last month, 40 bottles of counterfeit vodka, sold in 35cl bottles (commonly known as half bottles) and fraudulently labelled as Glen’s, were recovered from a shop in Coatbridge after a member of the public reported that the product they had purchased smelled of nail varnish remover.
The discovery prompted Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to issue a public health warning after lab results from the counterfeit vodka confirmed the presence of the chemical Isopropyl, which can be harmful if consumed.
Now, following more seizures from shops in the Glasgow area over the weekend, FSS has issued a rare 'food alert for action notice' to all of Scotland's councils, requesting them to identify and visit relevant establishments in their area to check for counterfeit products and make businesses aware of the issue.
FSS said it has been working closely with the brand owner for Glen’s vodka to try and mitigate the risk to consumers. As a result, additional information is being provided to help them distinguish between genuine and counterfeit products.
READ MORE: Public health warning after counterfeit vodka discovered in Scots town
A spokesperson for the Loch Lomond Group which owns Glen’s Vodka, said: “Our priority is the health and safety of the public which includes our many thousands of loyal Glen’s customers.
"We are working hard to support the excellent efforts of Food Standards Scotland and the other authorities involved to address the matter urgently.
"We would urge any customers who suspect they may have a counterfeit product to contact their local council’s environmental health service or the Food Standards Scotland Food Crime and Incidents Unit as quickly as possible.”
Gordon Mitchell, Head of Crime Operations at FSS, said: “Following further seizures of counterfeit vodka over the weekend, we need the public to be aware of any factors which may help them distinguish counterfeit products from genuine Glen’s. As well as a distinct smell, the counterfeit products are bottled differently to genuine Glen’s and the images provided will help consumers to tell the difference.
“As we do not yet know the scale of distribution of these products, but we do know the potential dangers associated with consumption, we are urging consumers once again to be extremely vigilant and to please get in touch if you have any information relating to the counterfeit vodka. We would also remind retailers that they should only be purchasing products from reputable suppliers.”
Ingestion of any amount of Isopropanol (isopropyl, IPA) can lead to toxicity and larger amounts can be fatal. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, intoxication, respiratory depression and coma.
Anyone with symptoms should seek medical attention call NHS 111 in the first instance or 999 in an emergency. Please be aware IPA has a strong odour and it may be possible to detect contaminated products by smell alone.
If anyone believes they may have purchased such products, FSS asks that they contact the FSS Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit – foodcrime@fss.scot – for further advice. The public is advised not to drink any of the product and instead store it in a safe place to allow FSS to collect and analyse it.
FSS has issued information to consumers to help them distinguish between genuine and counterfeit products. It can be read on the FSS website here
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here