Lab test of this vodka found it contained product used in paint stripper

Store-bought vodka from licensed IGA retailer found to contain key ingredient in paint stripper Sun 19 Jul 2026 at 3:28pm More than a litre of vodka being sold in store for just $59 might seem like a bargain but what testing undertaken by 7.30 found was that the perceived value was not worth the risk. After purchasing the bottle of Dirty George vodka from a legitimate Melbourne IGA liquor store, we took it to an independent testing lab. Those tests detected the presence of tert-butyl alcohol, which is a key ingredient in industrial cleaners like paint stripper. "We detected tert-butyl alcohol at about 500 milligrams per litre," said John Leeder, managing director of Leeder Analytical Laboratory, which routinely tests beer, wine and spirits for impurities and methanol. "This would probably be one of the first samples that we've detected tert-butyl alcohol in," Dr Leeder said. "If it's an industrial product, we will see it present there, but not in products that have been produced for human consumption. "That same sample, we also found that it contained about 3 per cent of glycerine, [which] can be added as a sweetener or as a masking agent." Michala Kowalski from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre says she was alarmed by the findings. "In Australia, the kind of recipe where you find [tert-butyl alcohol] on its own with alcohol, that's usually going to be a base for a perfume or hand sanitiser," Dr Kowalski told 7.30. "The bottle that you had tested and your results were actually quite terrifying. "Based on your chemical results … this is an example of a distiller that took industrial alcohol, put it in a bottle, repackaged it and put it out on the market. "You do not want to be drinking tert-butyl, full stop. "You're not meant to drink it. It was never meant to be in a drink. It's a petrochemical." Dr Kowalski also says the addition of glycerine could have been dangerous in its own way. "That amount of glycerine is actually probably going to cause a lot of digestive upset. It could be diarrhoea or nausea for days, especially the levels that you found, that can actually cause quite a lot of kind of gastrointestinal distress." Eric Hadinata is an addiction medicine specialist and treats patients who have suffered organ damage because of substance abuse. Dr Hadinata says 7.30's findings have prompted him to revisit earlier cases he has treated and review whether tert-butyl alcohol could have been a hidden cause of organ damage in his patients. His concerns are exacerbated by the findings of studies on the effects of tert-butyl alcohol on animal test subjects. "Some of the health effects of drinking high doses of tert-butyl alcohol in animal studies were abnormal movements, kidney and bladder issues, and over time, they detected kidney and thyroid cancers," he said. "And there was some mortality." Gaps in the system Australia has some of the highest alcohol taxes in the world, especially on spirits such as vodka, gin and whisky. The tax is calculated according to volume and alcohol content and it i's this tax that makes up a large portion of the retail price of legal spirits. A 700ml bottle with 40 per cent ABV (Alcohol by Volume) is taxed at $30, so any bottle being sold for $35 or less is a red flag that taxes may have been evaded. Dr Kowalski and her team have been investigating the illicit alcohol market for months and warn that it is becoming more widespread, with heavy drinkers and people with a limited income particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects. "We've been to about 200 stores across the eastern seaboard of Australia … 30 per cent of the stores we've gone to were actually stocking illicit alcohol products," Dr Kowalski told 7.30. "There's a few quirks in our regulatory system. To sell alcohol, you need to have a liquor licence, whether you're a retailer [or] a wholesaler. "The catch is that if you've got a bottle shop, you don't actually have to check if your supplier is licensed and above board and doing the right thing." There are several ways illicit alcohol can make it into the Australian market. Those methods include through the fraudulent manufacturing of alcohol that avoids tax altogether; the licensed manufacture of alcohol in a distillery but under-reporting sales and not paying excise; and smuggling alcohol into the country without paying excise duty. But it is the quality of the liquor and the presence of contaminants that has become a serious concern for health experts. Two bottles tested by Dr Kowalski's team contained methanol and plasticiser. "Both of those are things that you don't want to have in vodka. You don't want to be drinking them. They can cause long-term damage,"she said. Dr Hadinata says he wants to see better tracking of possible tert-butyl contamination and alcohol poisoning in hospitals. "In emergency departments in Victoria, we have the ability to test for substances in people's blood," he said. He would like tert-butyl alcohol to be included in testing. "So if someone comes into the emergency department substance-affected, we could ask whether adulterants or common adulterants for alcohol be included in that toxicology panel." Dr Kowalski is also urgently calling for more testing of liquor in Australia before more contaminated products make it into the market. "In the European Union, all food and beverage products, and this includes alcohol, are subjected to randomised testing for quality control," she said. "That's something that could really go about increasing consumer confidence." No-one taking ownership Metcash, which owns IGA, told 7.30 in a statement it was "investigating the matter". "Based on our initial discussions with the independent retailer [we] believe the store was unaware the product may have been illicit," the statement said. "IGA stores often source directly from many small, local producers in addition to Metcash, tailoring their ranges to their local communities." Metcash said it was working with its independent retailers to raise awareness of illicit alcohol. The bottle 7.30 had tested had other warning signs. There were no batch details, an incorrect pregnancy warning and a faulty cap. Tuscani Beverages is the company behind the Dirty George vodka label. Following a search of business records, 7.30 went to an address linked to the company in Doncaster. Steve James, the director of the company, told 7.30 that he was unaware of any contaminants. He said someone else was producing counterfeit products under the Dirty George label. "I've spoken to my lawyers and everything because someone's been copying our brand," he alleged. "We don't manufacture … we get that made from a manufacturer." Lawyers for Tuscani Beverages told 7.30 "all genuine Tuscani Beverages products are manufactured and bottled through a properly licensed manufacturing facility". "Tuscani Beverages relies on that facility's quality-assurance processes, and the company has not received any advice or notice from the facility, or from any regulator, indicating that its products, as manufactured at that facility, are unsafe or non-compliant. "The company is not aware of any complaints from purchasers alleging that they became sick as a result of consuming genuine Tuscani Beverages products." Through their research, Michala Kowalski and her team were aware of the Dirty George brand. "We've actually seen that brand in our audits. It's one that we also suspected was illicit for a range of reasons, the price point, the bottle shape, the packaging, like the information that's missing from it. That's one that we flagged," she said. She says authorities are aware of it too. "We have discussed our results with the different liquor control agencies, police [and] health departments." Victoria Police said that reports of illicit alcohol sales should be referred to the Victorian Department of Health, the Australian Taxation Office and local councils. The ATO and the local council referred 7.30 to the Victorian Department of Health, which then referred us to a new agency, Safe Food Victoria, established three weeks ago. Safe Food Victoria told 7.30: "Victorians have a right to safely consume food and alcohol. Any person or business who seeks to profit off this by breaking the law faces significant fines and prison." Dr Hadinata said he would like to see tougher penalties for those who manufactured contaminated alcohol. "When someone spikes your drink, that's a crime," he said. "This is technically spiking your drink with a substance you do not consent to. I think this is a criminal offence." 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