The Health Ministry recommended that citizens purchasing alcoholic beverages for their holiday festivities only through formal trade, as well as destroying the empty bottles so they cannot be refilled and sold on the illegal market.
The Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) invited people to consume alcohol moderately to prevent health damaging.
The Agency announced that throughout 2014, health authorities increased market surveillance and seized about 600,000 liters of illegal alcohol.
COFEPRIS noted that alcohol seized since the beginning of this administration amounts over one million liters, representing an increase of a thousand percent compared to 2012.
The Agency also said that people should care for their health through acquiring drinks in formal businesses, and in this way preventing buying adulterated alcohol.
Also, it was recommended that citizens should search for all the security seals in the bottle, without being broken or altered, when buying them in a retail shop, in a bar or a restaurant.
Owners of bars and/or restaurants should supervise their employees to destroy such containers; since the main axis of counterfeiting in the black market is reusing discarded bottles.
Both Health Agencies indicated that a percentage of workers in these establishments are colluding with illegal trade, supplying them bottles, which than are returned with adulterated alcohol.
They recommended avoiding drinking homemade or artisanal alcohol beverages, which distillation is usually not performed according to the Mexican Official Norm, raising the risk of chronic liver damage and renal system.
If any citizen detects any abnormalities in sale products or if notes any adverse reactions due to consumption, must notify immediately through the portal www.cofepris.gob.mx or through the Minister of Health of any of the 32 states of the Republic.
Source: Notimex
