If you have been convicted for drunk driving, you may have to have an interlock put on your vehicle before you can drive it. If the device detects alcohol you will not be allowed to drive your vehicle. The Interlock will only detect alcohol, but you can have a false postive if you eat certain foods. In this blog, we will look at some of those foods that can produce a false positive test.
Sugary Foods
We all love donuts, sweet rolls and chocolate. However, this foods can cause a very low amount of alcohol when you have consumed these sweets. Thankfully, the alcohol will be gone in three minutes or less. I tell clients to wait several minutes after you have eaten these items before you try to drive. I also tell my clients to rinse out their mouth with water before you engage the interlock test. I also tell my clients not to use mouth wash when rinsing your mouth because most of those items have alcohol in them!
Fruit & Fruit Drinks
Elementary science teaches us that fruit can ferment. There have been times where fruit and drinks that cantain fruit ferment in a person’s mouth and release alcohol that can be detected by an interlock sensor. If you have had some fruit or drunks with fruit in it, wait a few minutes before trying to drive and also wash out your mouth before hand.
Spicy Foods
Foods that are spicy can create methane cases once your stomach has digested it. Because of this, spicy foods can lead to levels of gas that can trigger a positive alcohol reading by interlock device. Spicy foods are probably one of the main reasons people who have not had any alcohol get false postive results when they are tested for alcohol.
Vinegar
A lot of people who eat healthy put vinegar on their salads. Many vinegars are made from wine. Wine, obviously has alcohol or traces of alcohol in it. You will not get enough alcohol to be legally drunk after eating a healthy salad with some vinegar on it, but if you have some left over salad in your mouth when you test you could have a false positive test result from your Interlock device.
Energy Drinks
Be careful when you are gulping down an energy drink. These drinks are not good for you health wise, but there are some that have small levels of alcohol in them. Typically, a label on an energy drink says “alcohol free” but be aware and pay attenetion.
Vanilla Extract
This is shocking news to many people, but if you use a bottle of Vanilla Extract when you are baking cookies, you could end up triggering a false positive on your Interlock test. Vanilla extract can have up to 35% alcohol. Many recipes only call for a little, but it could trigger a false positive result from your interlock device.
Mouthwash
As mentioned above, mouthwash almost always has alcohol in it. While most people do not ingest mouthwash, the alcohol from it can trigger a false positive on your device. Breath Spray should be mentione dhere. These sprays often contain small amounts of alcohol but a small amount can trigger a false positive. So becareful if you use breath spray.
Certain Diets
There are some diets that can use high levels of acetone in their body. Diabetics also have this problem. Acetone is often misread as alcohol and this has caused many people to fail their test. If you are going on a diet, ask your doctor if the diet you are on could cause your body to have high levels of acetone.
If you have any questions, please call Shawn today at 616-438-6719. The call is always free.