Alcohol

The common name for ethanol, especially in the context of alcoholic beverages — the intoxicating product of yeast fermentation that defines beer, wine and spirits. Beyond beverages it extracts flavours and botanicals, preserves fruits, carries colours and aromas, and sterilises surfaces. Its dual nature shapes regulation everywhere it appears: cherished cultural staple and taxable commodity on one hand, dose-dependent toxin and public-health burden on the other. In food science, alcohol is simultaneously an ingredient, a processing aid, a preservative and a controlled substance.