Cachaça poses many quality (appearance, taste, consumer acceptability) and safety hazards (chemical, metal, and microbiological contaminations during the process). In this work, an effort is made for the quality and safety analysis of cachaça, by describing and outlining the potential hazards in every step of the process. This study revealed that the critical control points (CCPs) involved in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to prevent cachaça safety hazards are the stages of sugarcane growing, sugarcane harvesting, fermentation, distillation, and aging process. The most significant factors for both CCPs and critical points (CPs) that should be controlled are determined. The implementation of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system in small distilleries of cachaça has been very helpful to provide the required safety for domestic consumers and boost cachaça exportations. Therefore, the main objective of the cachaça industry is to achieve production consistency.

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Aging cachaça in wooden barrels is essential to improve its quality. The level of maturation of distillates can be determined based on the contents of aging-marker phenolic compounds extracted from the lignin of the wooden barrel. This study aimed to characterize the aging process of cachaça by analyzing the mechanism of lignin degradation during its maturation in new barrels made from two oak species, European (Quercus petraea) and American (Quercus alba), for up to 60 months. Evaluation was based on the analyses of cinnamic aldehydes (sinapaldehyde and coniferaldehyde), benzoic aldehydes (syringaldehyde and vanillin), and benzoic acids (syringic and vanillic acids) using high-performance liquid chromatography. Oak species had a significant effect on all the studied phenolic compounds. Higher contents of all the identified phenolic compounds were found in cachaça aged in barrels made from American oak. The total contents of benzoic acids (vanillic and syringic acids) can be considered for predicting the level of maturation of cachaça aged in barrels made from both oak species. Based on the composition of maturation-related congeners, it is likely that for cachaça each year of aging in new oak barrels corresponds to approximately 5 years of aging for spirits in general commercialized worldwide.

Resumo O presente estudo teve por objetivo determinar a influência de métodos de destilação (simples, dupla e redestilação) na composição química de aguardentes de cana, mediante análises de componentes voláteis (aldeídos, ésteres, metanol, álcoois superiores, ácido acético e furfural) e contaminantes (álcoois n-butílico e sec-butílico, cobre e carbamato de etila). A aguardente monodestilada e os destilados alcoólicos das aguardentes bidestilada e redestiladas apresentaram composição química de compostos voláteis e de contaminantes dentro das especificações da legislação brasileira. A aguardente monodestilada apresentou maiores concentrações de ácido acético, aldeído acético, acetato de etila, álcool propílico, álcoois superiores, furfural e coeficiente de congêneres. A aguardente monodestilada também apresentou concentrações mais elevadas dos contaminantes metanol, sec-butanol, cobre e carbamato de etila. Em relação à monodestilação, as metodologias de bidestilação e de redestilação proporcionaram redução da concentração de congêneres voláteis das aguardentes (ácido acético, aldeído acético, acetato de etila, álcool propílico e furfural) e de compostos considerados contaminantes (metanol, sec-butanol, cobre e carbamato de etila).

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of heat treatment of sugar cane juice, supplementation with urea and double distillation on the concentration of volatile congeners (acetic aldehyde, ethyl acetate, n-propyl, isobutyl and isoamyl alcohols and acetic acid) and contaminants (methanol, 1-propyl and 2-butyl alcohols, copper, and ethyl carbamate) in cachaça. Samples of fresh sugar cane juice, sugar cane juice submitted to heat treatment and contaminated sugar cane juice were supplemented (or not) with urea and fermented. The washes so obtained underwent single and double distillation. Supplementation with urea stimulated ethyl carbamate formation. The distilled products that originated from contaminated worts presented higher concentration of acetic acid and ethyl carbamate. Double distillation reduced the concentration of contaminants. The best quality pot still cachaça was obtained employing heat treatment of sugar cane juice, nonsupplementation with urea and double distillation.