VIC: Police reject claim Cherry Ripe bars fool breath tester

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-1999
VIC: Police reject claim Cherry Ripe bars fool breath tester

MELBOURNE, April 16 AAP - Victorian police today rejected a report that Cherry Ripe
chocolate bars have fooled new alcohol breath-testing equipment.

The Herald Sun newspaper reported that in one case a 70-year-old man who hadn't drunk
alcohol for two months had recorded a blood alcohol reading of .07 per cent.

Superintendent Bob Wylie of the traffic support group said he was unaware of the case, and
that he would be "very suprised" if eating Cherry Ripes could produce a reading anywhere near
the legal limit in Victoria, of .05 per cent.

"Eating a Cherry Ripe will never see you in conflict with the law in relation to drink
driving," Superintendent Wylie said.

He said police learnt several years ago that small amounts of alcohol were used in the
manufacture of Cherry Ripe bars, and residual amounts of alcohol occasionally remained in the
finished product.

"You could eat a Cherry Ripe and be chewing the Cherry Ripe when you carried out a breath
test, and you would be extremely unlikely (to register any significant amount of alcohol)," he
said.

Superintendent Wylie said Victorian police were in the process of introducing an upgraded
version of the preliminary breath-testing device, but there was no reason to believe it could
be fooled by Cherry Ripes.

AAP gf/lmw/kr

KEYWORD: CHERRY

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.