FDA urges manufacturers to ensure hand sanitizer tastes bad, won’t appeal to children

DETROIT – Many distilleries and breweries have turned to making hand sanitizer during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration is reminding manufacturers to make sure their hand sanitizer is made with denatured alcohol because it will make the product taste more bitter and thus less appealing to children.

Poison control centers have received an increase in calls during the pandemic.

According to the FDA, a 13-year-old recently drank hand sanitizer that was not made with denatured alcohol. A distiller made it and packaged it in a liquor bottle.

The FDA said the incident is a reminder that all hand sanitizers should have a drug facts label, warnings to keep the product out of reach of children, information to get medical help or call a poison control center right away if swallowed and to supervise use in children under 6 years of age to prevent accidental swallowing.

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