Vodka is a truly Russian drink. And who, if not the Russians, know how to produce it. But unfortunately, the alcohol market is literally littered with counterfeit products or the so-called singed vodka. Such a product contains various impurities and even methanol - a poison for the human body. To maintain health while drinking strong drinks, you need to know how to check vodka and learn how to recognize a fake.
Main indicators of vodka quality
There are various ways to check at home what was bought in the store - high-quality vodka or a surrogate. After all, a fake product is bottled in the same bottles as the original. It contains no less beautiful labels and excise stamps. The only difference is that having consumed such vodka, you can remain disabled for the rest of your life.
Price reduction - promotion or fraud
Every person who has entered a large supermarket has more than once seen yellow or red price tags on the product, indicating a discount. Most often, prices are reduced for products with an expiring shelf life. But how can vodka spoil?
Like any food product, vodka has an expiration date. But lowering the price of a popular brand of vodka is not always a marketing ploy. The store, reducing the price, seeks to realize a fake.
To determine the average price of alcohol, you need to go to several stores. The cost in them may vary, but not more than 10%. If the difference is significant, you should stop buying alcohol.
Definition of a surrogate by cover
Alcohol is a volatile substance. Therefore, each bottle of strong drink is carefully sealed. Of course, the lid is no more difficult to fake than the container itself. But craftsmen rarely manage to achieve factory quality.
There are two types of caps used for capping vodka bottles: 
- screw;
- lid - "peakless".
How to identify burnt vodka by the cap? When buying a product with a screw cap, you need to check how tightly it wraps around the neck. It should not spin, and the control notches should not be torn off. The liquid is poured into containers with screw caps up to the middle of the neck.
The “peakless” lid should also tightly wrap around the neck without moving. The liquid in the container in the factory is poured just above the shoulders.
Content Quality Check
Holding the cherished product in your hands, and making sure of the reality of the cost and quality of capping, you do not need to immediately run to the cashier and pay. First you need to check the degree of transparency of alcohol and make sure that there is no sediment indicating a poor-quality product.
Now you can start shaking the contents. The appearance of small bubbles indicates a quality product. If the bubbles are large, or even foam appears at all, it is better to put such a bottle in place. There is no point in checking it further.
How to check the quality by the label and the appearance of the container
Picking up a bottle, you need to look through it at the back of the label. In the factory, the glue is applied in horizontal even stripes that are clearly visible through the contents.
Now you need to start studying the information indicated on the label. It should be easy to read. The label always contains information about the manufacturer, the GOST standard, the composition of the product indicating the quality of the alcohol, and so on.
There is another way to distinguish burnt vodka from the real one. The date of manufacture will help with this. It should be located on the label, cover and excise stamp. In all places, the date of bottling must match. The barcode and holographic image must also be present.
No less informative is the type of bottle. An indicator of quality will be the presence of industrial protection, which is cast together with the bottle. The coat of arms, the personal mark of the manufacturer, special markings or relief are called upon to protect the product. In artisanal conditions, protection will not be faked, since this process is too expensive.
Home methods for determining counterfeit
The absence of external signs of a fake is not a reason for fun. Having poured vodka into a glass, you need to fully inhale the alcohol vapors emanating from it. If they contain foreign odors (acetone, gasoline, etc.), it is better to pour such a product.
At home, other methods of verification are also applicable.
Weighing. According to all laws, a liter bottle must contain 1000 g of the product. But if the proportions of alcohol and water are correctly observed during the preparation process, the specific gravity of the finished product will be 953 g. A deviation from this weight up or down is allowed, but not more than 5 g.
To understand a fake or not, it is worth weighing the bottle
Ignition. This method is used by moonshiners. The liquid is poured into a spoon and set on fire. When burning high-quality vodka, a small blue flame is formed. The surrogate flashes or does not light up at all. The appearance of a green flame indicates the presence of methanol.
After the alcohol burns out, a clear, odorless liquid should remain in the spoon. The remainder of an oily consistency indicates the presence of fusel oils.
Copper wire. Using copper wire, you can check vodka for the presence of methanol. First, it is heated over an open flame, and then lowered into a container with a strong drink. If, when the wire cools, a sharp smell appears, reminiscent of formalin, this means that the vodka contains methyl alcohol.
Freezing. This is the simplest but most effective way to determine the quality of a product. The bottle is placed in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Then, they take it out and check the contents. A drink prepared in compliance with the technology will acquire a viscous consistency.
The formation of ice crystals indicates the presence of impurities and excessive water.
Chemical check
This method involves the use of litmus paper or sulfuric acid. If you dip the edge of litmus paper into a glass of strong drink, it should not change color. If the color of the paper changes to red, you should not drink such a drink.
Sulfuric acid is mixed in equal proportions with vodka and stirred. Black coloration of the liquid indicates the presence of fusel oils.
Conclusion
Knowing how to recognize burnt vodka, and applying these methods in practice, it will be possible to avoid a hangover, subject to moderate drinking. But most importantly, a quality product is not hazardous to health. And in order to minimize the risk of buying a surrogate, you need not only to check the vodka, but also choose a container with a ball dispenser. It is almost never faked.
Checking the purchased alcohol by barcode will eliminate the risk of buying a fake product. The legislation carefully regulates the circulation of alcohol, however, despite this, the number of unlicensed products does not decrease. If in bars and restaurants the idea does not always arise to check alcohol, then when buying in a store there are more opportunities for this.
There are a number of measures that allow you to check alcohol for a license, but there is an easier option to check information about the product you are buying. In the distribution network, information about the product is registered by a barcode.
Barcode on the label
The barcode carries a lot of information, in particular:
- About the country of origin;
- About the name of the product, its category;
- About the expiration date;
- On the authenticity of the digital code;
It seems that there is nothing difficult in forging a label, but a combination of numbers at the end of a 13-digit barcode allows you to fix an error. The verification system is so simple, so fake barcodes are stamped without taking into account the settlement system, for which they are caught during verification. Yes, and attempts to take into account the features of verification of the results do not give tangible results.
Barcodes can be of 2 types: 13- and 12-digit, depending on the country using this system. For example, in the European system, the code consists of 13 digits, while in Canada and the USA it is 12 characters.
The International Product Accounting System has developed an individual code for each country for ease of reading information.
You can check the barcode by downloading the application for the phone's operating system. You can use the service and check alcoholic and non-alcoholic products online.
Code review
How to check the authenticity of the code:
- Manually
- Automatically
For manual verification, it is necessary to take the sum of the numbers in even positions and multiply the resulting number by 3, add this indicator to the sum of odd numbers, except for the last one, which is the control. For the resulting number, it is necessary to use the indicator of units, subtracting this figure from 10. The resulting value must match the last digit of the barcode.
For automatic verification, you only need to enter the barcode correctly, click in the "Check" field and evaluate the result. If the code is genuine, then it is highlighted with a green background, if it is fake, then the corresponding inscription appears.
There are several reasons why the numbers corresponding to the country of origin do not show the name they should, this may be due to several reasons:
- The main plant has representatives, subsidiaries in other countries, although the brand will be retained.
- If there is a license, the product can be manufactured in another country on behalf of a foreign manufacturer;
- The company was registered in another country. In this case, all products will be labeled at the registration address.
- If the firm consists of several foreign founders, then the country code can be any of all founding countries.
Knowing these subtleties, you can avoid the purchase of fake and low-quality products.
Hello dear readers! Today I propose to talk about what counterfeit is, how to deal with it, and how alcohol is checked by an excise stamp.
Did you think that surrogate drinks are protected so reliably that it would be impossible to calculate them with some knowledge? That excise tax can be bought at any Soyuzpechat stall and not be held responsible? We will try to figure out how excise can serve as a guarantee of quality, and how the process of obtaining certification is monitored.
It is believed that the excise stamp was invented by the state solely for the purpose of obtaining a tax on the sale of alcohol, so that the tax can regulate the alcohol market and influence the cost. This is partly true, but a simple distinctive sign can also protect the health of the consumer and warn him against buying low-quality products. To know everything about the excise tax, I will try to describe the main verification methods and the nuances that will show that you have a fake.
How to distinguish a fake yourself
1. Mindfulness
Remember the children's game "Spot the Differences". Picking up a bottle with an alcoholic drink in a supermarket is just the time to remember your powers of observation and see if all the degrees of protection are on the sticker that holds the container and the lid together.
Forgery of any means of protection is costly, which is why excise forms often pay attention to the simplest points, while complex levels are ignored. 4 things to pay attention to:
- Brand number applied by inkjet printing;
- Barcode;
- Foil holographic image;
- Data about the manufacturing plant, security level, release date.
2. Scan
If you buy alcohol not in a stall, but in a market that respects its reputation, there must be a special scanner here. He may be waiting for you at the reception desk. It is enough to scan the excise stamp for the electronics to check all levels of compliance. Although according to experts, even with such a check, you will not be given 100% guarantees.
3. Measure seven times
Each excise sticker has its own size. For alcoholic beverages, it is set in two versions: 90×26 and 62×21. If the dimensions do not correspond to those indicated, have uneven or wrinkled edges, you should be wary.
Another nuance is that on a large stamp, the upper part is separated from the larger lower golden thread. It is not erased, does not smear, if necessary, it can be pulled out of the paper.
4. Little tricks
Surrogate alcohol should have a low cost, so it is not in the interests of bootleggers to spend money on fake protection. In order to make it easier for the consumer to bring counterfeit goods to clean water, small fragments that are imperceptible at first glance were invented on protective parcels (stamps).
Knowing about them, it is not difficult to determine the original. These inconspicuous signs of originality include:
- On the top of the text, the word "brand" is written in a negative stripe, and "FMS" in a positive one;
- The diamonds of the hologram contain a pattern with the RF logo woven into it in the central part;
- The strip with the inscription "Federal Special Stamp" gradually changing colors, passes from a negative print to a positive one;
- The excise paper itself is made in the form of self-adhesive and does not have luminescence;
- Fibers are scattered over the entire surface, they may be non-luminescent red or luminescent yellow-red.
Video instruction
Video instruction on how to distinguish a fake excise stamp from a real one
Checking over the Internet
There are several ways to check liquor protection online.
Last chance
There is another 100% verification option, but relatives or police authorities will rather use it in case of death or alcohol poisoning. This is a forensic examination conducted by the "Center for Forensic Expertise".
Here, the liquid will be decomposed into its components and molecules and it will be found out whether it corresponds to the high name of the ethyl-containing potion or is a fake. Excise duty will also be studied here. They will probably even determine on what equipment it was printed. Only these measures will already be a reaction to the event that we are planning to prevent.
Conclusion
Knowing about the levels of protection for alcoholic beverages and how to check their originality, of course, gives you additional guarantees when buying, but it does not at all insure against costly artful counterfeiting. After all, the stereotype that a surrogate is made only in the form of burnt vodka has long outlived its usefulness, and in our realities, elite, expensive alcohol is of greater interest.
Now you are armed with the necessary knowledge and you have less chance of running into a fake. But still, I highly recommend reading an article about. This is a very terrible poison, the adoption of which in most cases leads to blindness and even to of death. With methyl poisoning, the clock counts, and in order to take the necessary measures, it is extremely important to have the necessary information.
This is where I end. I would like to advise you to buy alcohol only in specialized stores and still pay attention to the excise tax, because it is printed for us! Subscribe to my blog updates, share interesting facts on social networks, and get fresh and reliable first-hand information!
See you soon, Pavel Dorofeev.
For alcohol. It is applied to protect goods of proven quality. Underground manufacturers often forge decals, which causes poisoning. The established authenticity of the sticker guarantees the safety of drinking in moderation.
Purpose of certified marks
To protect citizens from, special stickers are made. They have several degrees of protection:
- high quality paper;
- decals;
- barcode checked online;
- reflective sticker that shimmers in the light.
The use of expensive equipment in the manufacture of high-quality stickers makes it possible to achieve the main goal - the inefficiency of forging excise taxes. It is unprofitable for underground manufacturers to engage in the production of original signs - they will have to fork out for this. Therefore, on the shelves of stores is certified in accordance with established standards.
People attach little importance to the external signs of clandestine production, consuming poisonous mixtures. But for the safety of the health of loved ones and guests, you need to know how to check the excise stamp for alcohol. There are two ways to determine the quality of alcoholic products:
- visual;
- by number: scanner or on the Internet.
How to visually distinguish the original from the fake?
You can check the authenticity of alcohol by excise stamp by familiarizing yourself with the main features of the original sticker:
- the edges of the label are even, the pattern is streak-free;
- on the reverse side there is a luminescent inscription "Alcoholic products";
- with a magnifying glass you can see the words “brand” and “FSM”, the colors of the inscriptions are shown inversely;
- there is a holographic sticker on the excise tax;
- there are two blue squares glowing under the fluorescent lamp.
The question of how to check the excise stamp for alcohol is treated without due attention. People believe that counterfeit is cleaner than the original drink in terms of composition. However, official statistics cite cases of severe poisoning when people die during holiday feasts. Unknown substances in the base cause liver damage, loss of visual acuity, hearing.
Additional verification methods
You can check the excise stamp for alcohol by number right in the store by typing the number into your smartphone browser. For such purposes, the official website - service.fsrar.ru is intended. There are applications for the Android system that offer to scan a barcode using a camera.
How to check the excise stamp for alcohol, the employee of the relevant department in the supermarket will tell you. It can scan the barcode of the label and display the information on the display of the device. But this method does not always become a reliable sign of the quality of alcohol. It is required to take into account all the degrees of protection listed in the article.
The stamps come in a variety of colors, such as blue, pink, or purple. It depends on the type and strength of the drink. It is not glued to all types of drinks, but only to those that have a strength of more than 4%. Therefore, you will not find this sign on beer, cider, poire and mead. The excise stamp can be checked visually, but not everyone will be able to distinguish a fake only in appearance. The most reliable way to check the brand is through a special server or application! Let's talk about this in more detail.
Checking stamps through the FSRAR personal account online
Any consumer of alcoholic beverages can check the authenticity of the excise stamp on the fsrar.ru website. To do this, you need to go to the main page of the site and find in the menu a service called “Checking stamps”. Or just follow this link: http://fsrar.ru/checkmark
This window will open in front of you:
1. Look at the series and excise stamp number on the bottle.
2. Lead them to the windows called "Series" and "Number".
3. There is a captcha on the site, you will be asked to add or subtract the numbers, the answer must be written in the window, which is indicated in the picture under the number 6. The verification system may prompt you to select the type of product:
4. After selecting the products, you will need to enter the captcha again and click the "send" button.
5. A window will appear below, indicated in the figure under the number 8. This will be the result of the check. This window will contain information about the product you purchased.
Checking alcoholic beverages through a mobile application
In addition, the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation has developed a special application for mobile phones. You can download it regardless of the type of mobile operating system. It's called "Alco Anti-Counterfeit".
The app logo looks like this:
The application will help:
- Determine the legality of alcoholic products;
- Determine the legality of the sale of alcoholic products at a point of sale;
- Find the nearest legal points for the sale of alcoholic products;
- Report the found violation to the federal service for the regulation of the alcohol market.
Download mobile application for FSRAR
Android app download link in Google Play Market:
iOS app download link in the App Store:
The application works by pointing the camera of your smartphone at the barcode of the brand. So you can independently verify the quality of the purchased products.
