Determination of the adulterants in adulterant–brandy blends using fluorescence spectroscopy and multivariate methods

Abstract

The addition of water or ethanol to brandy is an easy way to adulterate brandy. To avoid the misleading of consumers, it is necessary to develop a reliable method to detect the adulteration of brandy. In this work excitation-emission matrix fluorescence in combination with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to determine the content of water, ethanol and methanol in adulterated brandy samples. Excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectra were measured in the emission wavelength range of 510-600 nm and in the excitation wavelength range of 393-497 nm. The model created using PARAFAC-PLS was able to predict the water, ethanol and methanol level in adulterated brandy with root mean square error of prediction values of 0.24%, 0.20% and 0.22%,respectively, and coefficients of determination of prediction between the reference content and the predicted values of 0.993, 0.997 and 0.995, respectively.

Quantification of adulterants in mezcal by means of FT-MIR and FT-NIR spectroscopy coupled to multivariate analysis

“…There are many investigations that have identified adulterants in diverse alcoholic beverages (beer, whisky, vodka, rum, cognac, brandy, wine, tequila, and gin) using different techniques, including FT-MIR and FT-NIR spectroscopy (Kuribayashi et al, 2016;Lachenmeier, 2016;Markechová et al, 2014;Rezende et al, 2016;Yucesoy & Ozen, 2013), however, in the revised literature, no reports exist on the use of FT-MIR and FT-NIR spectroscopy coupled to multivariate analysis to identify the aforementioned adulterants in mezcal. It is important to verify the authenticity of mezcal, because, in the last years, several mezcal bottles have been confiscated due to adulteration (COFEPRIS, 2017).…”

Rapid and simple analysis of amphetamine-type illegal drugs using excitation–emission matrix fluorescence coupled with parallel factor analysis

“…Generally, chemometric algorithms, such as parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), were proposed to decompose the EEM complex fluorescence signal into individual fluorescence spectra. EEM combined with chemometric algorithm has been successfully applied for the study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pesticides in natural water [14], methylcoumarin in cosmetics [15], organic pollutants in environmental analysis [16], aromatic amino acids in plasma and urine [17,18], and the adulterants in adulterant-brandy blends [19,20]. Therefore, EEM coupled with PARAFAC algorithm could provide a new avenue for rapidly determining the illegal drugs with adulterants.…”

Distinguishing between juniper-flavoured spirit drinks from different producers

“…By combining fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometric method discrimination of red wines according to grape variety (Airado-Rodríguez et al 2011;Saad et al 2016;Silvestri et al 2014;Yin et al 2009), typicality (Dufour et al 2006;Yin et al 2009), manufactures (Yin et al 2009) and geographical origin (Dufour et al 2006) or reliable classification of white wines according to grape variety (Azcarate et al 2015) can be successfully achieved. Furthermore, adulterations of brandy can be identified and determined by using chemometric methods even if slight fluorescent spectral variations are observed for the samples (Markechová et al 2014). The combination of fluorescence spectroscopic data with UV/VIS and near IR data has improved the grouping of single-malt whiskies according to their geographic origin (Mignani et al 2012).…”