Eating jackfruit can make you ‘drunk’; here’s what happened to KSRTC driver
KSRTC driver at Pandalam depot tests positive on breathalyser after eating jackfruit, prompting officials to investigate the fruit's impact on test accuracy
A ripe jackfruit unexpectedly disrupted routine operations at the Pandalam Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus stand on Friday (July 18) morning, giving rise to questions about the breathalyser test's accuracy and sparking amusement among staff.
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Breathalyser test
It all started when a KSRTC driver from Kottarakkara, reporting for duty, brought a freshly cut and fully ripe honey jackfruit from home to share with his colleagues.
The fruit’s sweet aroma and heavenly taste quickly made it a hit among the staff, and one driver, who hadn’t eaten breakfast, consumed four or five bulbs before heading off for duty.
But things took a bizarre turn when the depot’s routine morning breathalyser test began.
To everyone’s shock, the driver who had eaten the most jackfruit bulbs tested positive with a reading of 10 — well above the permissible legal alcohol limit.
Stunned by the result, the driver vehemently denied consuming alcohol and even volunteered to undergo a blood test to prove his innocence.
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False positive result
This led depot officials to suspect a possible fault in their breathalyser device. To verify if there are any discrepancies in the test results, a sample test was conducted.
An employee first blew into the device before eating the jackfruit, and the test result was zero.
After consuming a few bulbs from the same fruit, he repeated the test — surprisingly, the device registered a positive reading.
Several other staff members who had tested negative initially began registering high readings after eating the jackfruit, thus solving the mystery.
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Jackfruit triggered readings
The incident left everyone amused and baffled.
Some staffers speculated that the fruit might have undergone natural fermentation, possibly due to being overripe, thereby releasing alcohol-like compounds that triggered the breathalyser reading.
This isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred. A similar case was reported earlier when a driver at Palode depot in Thiruvananthapuram tested positive during a breathalyser test, though he claimed innocence, stating that he was a teetotaller.
KSRTC made the breathalyser test mandatory as part of the initiative to prevent drunken driving.