O.K., I was surfing the net for information about whether vodka is really made of potatoes (answer – about 99% is NOT, but there is potato vodka being made in the U.S. and elsewhere), and I came across a very strange reference in a U.S.A. Today article.
The article was discussing buying perfume overseas, and included this quote:
So what’s the straight dope? Is European perfume really made with potato alcohol? And more importantly, is potato alcohol banned from the U.S. because it is a living organism? And if so, why is Teton Glacier Potato Vodka (“Outstanding Hand Made American Potato Vodka”) still in business?
A possibility. However, my understanding is that Polish potato vodka is sold in the U.S. I know for a fact that vodka made from other grains is sold here. It seems to me that if potato alcohol were a “living organism,” then alcohol made from barley or rye would also be living and capable of causing problems to U.S. agriculture.
Any chemists/farmers/perfume users/vodka drinkers have any other thoughts?
Alcohol is an organic chemical compound produced by yeast by converting sugars, not a living organism. (Unless Potato Alcohol is a name for something that is not alcohol.)
As far as worrying about viable yeast being imported, that’s done all the time in unpasturized beers.
I think that the author of the article was suckin’ back on some of Grandpa’s old cough syrup…
Alcohol is alcohol. It is a chemical, not a living organism. That author needs to get their facts straight.
WAG: US perfume is made from distilled alcohol, wheras the European alcohol is put in straight from whence its fermented. The latter would probably have non-alcohol organic material in it from whatever plant material is used to make it. (Whether it’s alive being in alcohol and other chemicals is moot.) Import of agricultural products is a pretty tricky business, so they probably ban it outright since testing it would ruin the product.
Any industry which takes a few cents worth of ingredients, gives it a pretentious name and pretty packaging and sells it for more than heroin has to have a good line in bullshit…
The use of potato alcohol is probably a sales gimmick by the perfume manufacturers. You know the sort of thing, “made with natural ecofriendly potato alcohol with no chemicals” etc. etc.
The FDA may object because the perfume contains drinkable alcohol. Most alcohol in cosmetics is “denatured”, that is, it contains additives which make it taste unpleasant (typically bitrex) and impurities which make it dangerous (methanol, butanol).