Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive

by Ron Joseph

December, 2004

Paint Poisoning

Q. I used a spray paint, think it was rust-o-lieum, on a old grape crusher and used it to crush some grapes. That was last summer and have made wine from it, but the wine has a little aftertaste and the thought has occurred to me that it might be from the paint I used. Could there be a poison issue that I may be having.

Without knowing more about it I would say that it is unlikely that the paint has caused any poisoning, although it might have left an aftertaste. One way to get better clarification is to see if you can find the paint can you used and then go to the paint manufacturer's website and search for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for that product. From the MSDS you will be able to determine if any of the ingredients were poisonous.

If you don't have the old can of paint, you could possibly take a bottle of wine to a chemistry lab for analysis, and the lab could test for heavy metals and other likely poisonous compounds. Did you make the wine for personal or commercial use? Unless you made a really large expensive batch (presumably for commercial sale) it might be less expensive for you to toss the wine than go to the expense of analyzing the ingredients.

I don't know anything about the grape crushing process, but intuitively I doubt that the small amount of contact the grapes would have had with the crusher would have allowed the paint to give the grapes an aftertaste.

Quite honestly, the approach you take will be dependent on the expense you will incur. If it is worth your while (financially) I would be happy to consult to you on a fee basis, in which case I would ask you a few more questions and help you find the MSDS or paint ingredients that might have been used. Clearly this will take some labor effort. Please get back to me if you would like to pursue this avenue.

Best wishes,

Ron Joseph