Ethanol exposure in children: Food as a by far more relevant source than phytomedicines

Ethanol is widely used as a solvent during the manufacturing of herbal medicinal products and is also frequently present as a constituent in finished herbal medicinal products for the use in patients of all ages, including children. Furthermore, alcohol is a constituent of a large number of food items including those not labelled as alcohol-containing. These include fermented foods such as bread, yoghurt etc. but also food marketed as non-fermented such as fruit juices etc. At the same time, exposure even to very low levels of ethanol, especially in children, has been supposed to have possible adverse effects on…