Hey Five
thanks for the reply, yes I found the same monograph, interesting that they prescribe such low levels in hand sanitiser but arent so concerned about what you ingest!
One thing I did come across which really surprised me is that Tequila must contain a minimum amount of methanol by law in Mexcico to be Tequila......that explains an awful lot!
Mexican standard
The amounts of methanol in distillates are of utmost importance for the alcoholic industry, because this compound can be dangerous for its consumers if its ratio indices are not adequate. For this reason, there are established standards for controlling the levels of methanol that a distilled beverage can contain. In Mexico, there is the standard “NOM-142-SSA1 / SCFI-2014, Alcoholic beverages. Sanitary specifications. Sanitary and commercial labeling. ” (2), issued by the Ministry of Health, which establishes the permissible limits of methanol content for different distilled beverages.
The standard establishes a maximum methanol content of 300 mg per 100 ml of anhydrous alcohol. It only presents an exception for whiskey and cognac drinks where the maximum allowable limit is 1000 mg of methanol per 100 ml of anhydrous alcohol.
It is important to note that the Tequila Standard recognizes that Methanol is an unavoidable constituent, setting a lower limit of 30 mg of Methanol per 100 ml of Anhydrous Alcohol; that is, an alcoholic beverage that does not contain Methanol can not be tequila since, as explained above, Methanol is generated from pectins that are in the agave.