European champagne recall: Tainted bottles contain 'pure MDMA'

Bottles of Moet & Chandon champagne have been recalled across Europe for the second time this year after they were discovered to contain a fatal dose of MDMA.

The tampered products have already killed one person and hospitalised several others.

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) issued a fresh warning in June for 3-litre bottles of Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial, three months after an earlier warning and recall.

According to the NVWA, four people in the Netherlands have already become ill after drinking from the bottles and in Germany one man has died.

Agencies across Europe have also previously warned the public about the bottles, which are reportedly easy to tell apart from the legitimate product.

The corks do not match those used on normal Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial bottles and the bottles themselves appear to have been emptied of champagne and filled with pure liquid MDMA.

The tampering did not occur at the site of the producer, Moet Hennessy, and is reportedly being blamed on drug smugglers.

The liquid in the bottle is a reddish/brown colour, with a fruity smell that is not "champagne-like".

Tainted bottles are also not carbonated and contain no bubbles.

The initial warning was for Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial 3-litre bottles with the lot code LAJ7QAB6780004, the updated warning includes bottles with lot code LAK5SAA6490005.

The fatal German case occurred in February at a restaurant in the town of Weiden.

The deceased, named as Harald Georg Z, collapsed after one sip of the liquid and died before he could reach hospital, Bild reported.

Authorities who tested the bottle said it contained as much as 100g of the drug.

A standard dose of the drug is about 100mg on the street - meaning the bottles contained a thousand times that.

A spokesman for the NVWA told the Daily Mail: "Even dipping your fingertip into the liquid and tasting it can cause serious health problems, even if you don't swallow it.

"People should also not touch, let alone taste, the contents. Taking a small sip can be fatal."