Not alcohol, but jackfruit: Kerala drivers fail breath test after breakfast

In an unusual incident from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, three KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) bus drivers at the Pandalam depot were nearly penalized for drunk driving—thanks not to alcohol, but to a ripe jackfruit.

Last week, during a routine early morning breathalyser test, the drivers were shocked when the device displayed a blood alcohol reading of 10—well above the legal limit. The surprising twist? None of them had consumed a single drop of alcohol.

Perplexed by the positive results, depot officials launched a quick investigation. The mystery was soon unraveled: the real culprit was an overripe jackfruit brought by one of the drivers from Kottarakara in Kollam district. Its fermentation had released alcohol-like compounds into the air, which affected the sensitive breathalyser equipment.

To confirm the suspicion, another driver was asked to eat a piece of the same fruit. Unsurprisingly, he too tested positive for alcohol shortly after consumption. The fermentation process in ripe jackfruit produces ethanol-like compounds, which can confuse devices calibrated to detect alcohol in the breath. This natural process misled the machine into flagging the drivers as inebriated.

The depot authorities eventually ruled out any wrongdoing, recognizing the jackfruit’s role in the false positives. No action was taken against the drivers, and the incident now stands as a bizarre but enlightening reminder about the sensitivity of alcohol testing equipment—and the unexpected power of certain fruits to trigger false alarms.

While amusing in retrospect, the episode also underscores the need for cautious interpretation of breathalyser results, especially in the presence of strongly smelling, fermented foods.