Alert® for Methanol: A rapid diagnostic assay to detect methanol contamination in distilled spirits

Counterfeiting labelled brands of distilled spirits can be an economic and human health issue as some counterfeit products have been found to contain physiologically harmful levels of methanol. Previously, suspected counterfeit products were sent to a laboratory for GC/MS analysis, requiring hours to days to complete testing. A new rapid diagnostic assay, Neogen's Alert® for Methanol is an on-site screening tool to detect 1% or greater methanol in distilled spirits within 5 minutes. Alert® for Methanol is a colorimetric enzyme assay that indicates a sample contains >1% methanol if the color of the reagent solution turns dark within 5 minutes after sample addition.