Check dates before you drink

Bhubaneswar, June 25: Akash Kumar Mallick, 22, an MBA student at a private college, was admitted to a local hospital last night after consuming a bottle of beer that was past its expiry date.

Released after preliminary treatment, he is now recuperating in his hostel in the Nayapalli area of the city.

“We came to know that his illness was because of the stale beer that was past its expiry date. It had become unfit for human consumption,” said Akash’s friend Alok Kumar Das, 23.

The incident assumed significance as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its latest report, has referred to the availability of expired beer as a major cause of concern.

Rules stipulate that beer supplied against permits should be delivered at the depots within three weeks of manufacturing and the stock more than six months old should be destroyed by the Odisha State Beverage Corporation, which regulates wholesale trade of liquor in the state, with the permission of the excise commissioner.

A beer bottle is supposed to be consumed within six months of being bottled.

Cautioning people that they should check the expiry date of beer before buying it, food and beverage expert Satya Mohapatra said: “The basic ingredients of beer are water and malt. If the water content and the malt are not mixed properly and the water is not pure, the beer may turn toxic after sometime. It is dangerous to consume such beer. One must ensure that he does not buy expired beer.”

The expert said consumption of the expired beer might affect the immune system adversely. It may also cause nausea and hallucination.

Nihar Samal, a practising physician, also warned against drinking stale beer. “It can have serious repercussions for one’s health,” he said. “We come across several cases of people consuming stale beer and falling sick,” said a doctor at Capital Hospital.

Test checks by the CAG at four depots in Angul, Berhampur, Cuttack and Khurda revealed that 46,950 cases of beer were delivered to the corporation by the suppliers “one to 19 weeks after the expiry date” (six months from manufacturing date).

“It was also noticed that dates of manufacture were not entered in the goods receipt note (GRN) database to watch expiry period of the stock,” stated the CAG report.

State government officials said this was just the tip of the iceberg. “Expired beer is being sold freely in the market. Since a lot of people buy the stuff either in hurry or on the sly, they hardly notice the manufacturing date printed on the bottles. But, we always act when we get a complaint,” said a senior official of the excise department.

During 2010-13, the OSBC destroyed 62030.94 cases of beer in its depots as the stock had become unfit for human consumption due to sedimentation. The corporation should have taken care to return the stale stock of beer in keeping with the liquor sourcing policy, said the report.