As consumers demand more certainty over where their food and beverages originate from and the genuineness of ingredients, there is a need for analytical techniques that are able to provide data on issues such as traceability, authenticity, and origin of foods and beverages. One such technique that shows enormous promise in this area is gas chromatographycombustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). As will be demonstrated in this review, GC-C-IRMS is able to be applied to a wide array of foods and beverages generating data on key food components such as aroma compounds, sugars, amino acids, and carbon dioxide (in carbonated beverages). Such data can be used to determine synthetic and natural ingredients; substitution of 1 ingredient for another (such as apple for pear); the use of synthetic or organic fertilizers; and origin of foods and food ingredients, including carbon dioxide. Therefore, GC-C-IRMS is one of the most powerful techniques available to detect fraudulent, illegal, or unsafe practices in the food and beverages industries and its increasing use will ensure that consumers may have confidence in buying authentic products of known origin.

A new method has been developed for the quantitation of 1,8-cineole in red and white wines using headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) combined with stable isotope dilution analysis (SIDA) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). An extensive survey of Australian wines (44 white and 146 red) highlighted that only red wines contained significant amounts of 1,8-cineole (up to 20 μg/L). Hydrolytic studies with limonene and α-terpineol, putative precursors to 1,8-cineole, showed a very low conversion into 1,8-cineole (< 0.6%) over a 2 year period, which does not account for the difference between white and red wines. 1,8-Cineole was chemically stable in model wine solution over 2 years, and absorption from a Shiraz wine by bottle closures was most evident for a synthetic closure only (14% absorption after 1 year). Two commercial ferments at two different locations were monitored daily to investigate the evolution of 1,8-cineole throughout fermentation. Both ferments showed daily increases in 1,8-cineole concentration while in contact with grape solids, but this accumulation ceased immediately after pressing. This observation is consistent with the extraction of 1,8-cineole into the ferment from the solid portions of the grape berries.

Stable isotope dilution assays have been developed for gamma-octalactone (1), gamma-nonalactone (2), gamma-decalactone (3) and gamma-dodecalactone (4) in both white and red wines for the first time. (2)H(7)-analogues of each lactone were prepared for use as internal standards via a strategy employing ring-opening, esterification and oxidation of the respective starting lactones. The methods were shown to be highly accurate and reproducible (R(2) > or = 0.999; SD < or = 1%). A large selection of Australian wines (n = 178) were analyzed for the presence of lactones 1-4. Fifty-eight white wines covering the varieties Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Viognier, as well as Botrytis style wines, were analyzed and showed broadly that gamma-octalactone (1) was the most common lactone, being observed above its limit of detection in 28 of the wines, followed by gamma-nonalactone (2) in 23 wines. The Botrytis style white wines had the highest concentrations of 1 and 2 (maximum concentrations 8.5 and 59 microg/L respectively). A total of 120 red wines covering the varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz were also studied and showed gamma-octalactone (1) and gamma-nonalactone (2) to be the most common lactones present, in 56 and 57 of the wines, respectively. gamma-Decalactone (3) was observed in only a small number (13) of red wine samples and not at all in the white varieties. gamma-Dodecalactone (4) was absent from all 178 samples studied. The highest concentrations of lactones 1, 2 and 3 in the red wines were 4.2, 39.7 and 4.0 microg/L respectively.

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