Can a breathalyzer show promille after consuming kvass, kombucha, or non-alcoholic beer? To find this out, an experiment tested several commonly consumed products — birch sap, kvass, non-alcoholic beer, kefir, and candies. It turns out that some of them do indeed cause a breathalyzer to register the presence of alcohol immediately after consumption. For example, kvass registered 0.39 promille, while "Vētras putna" registered 0.22 promille. However, about five minutes later, these readings disappeared. To understand whether such results also indicate actual intoxication, the participants of the experiment consult a narcologist. The specialist explains that in such cases, it is more about the reaction of the measuring device rather than the intoxication of the person. "It is unlikely to be intoxication. Rather, it is the measurement device registering certain chemical reactions at the moment of measurement. What happens in the body is incomparable to what happens when an alcoholic product actually enters the body," notes the narcologist. The experiment shows that even seemingly harmless drinks can briefly affect the readings of a breathalyzer.
