The triacylglycerol (TAG) composition study of cocoa butter (CB) and cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) has been performed by gas chromatography (GC) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). These two techniques provided comparable results. The advantage of the MALDI technique was the detection of each compound comprising the triacylglycerol classes (Cn). Moreover, comparison of the data obtained by these two techniques indicated that TAG relative percentages could be obtained quantitatively with the MALDI technique. These techniques have been applied for the composition determination of CB þ CBE mixtures. Encouraging results showed that it is possible to quantify an admixture containing as little as 4% of CBE.
Despite the robustness of isotopic methods applied in the field of wine control, isotopic values can be slightly influenced by enological practices. For this reason, must concentration technique effects on wine isotopic parameters were studied. The two studied concentration techniques were reverse osmosis (RO) and high-vacuum evaporation (HVE). Samples (must and extracted water) have been collected in various French vineyards. Musts were microfermented at the laboratory, and isotope parameters were determined on the obtained wine. Deuterium and carbon-13 isotope ratios were studied on distilled ethanol by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), respectively. The oxygen-18 ratio was determined on extracted and wine water using IRMS apparatus. The study showed that the RO technique has a very low effect on isotopic parameters, indicating that this concentration technique does not create any isotopic fractionation, neither at sugar level nor at water level. The effect is notable for must submitted to HVE concentration: water evaporation leads to a modification of the oxygen-18 ratio of the must and, as a consequence, ethanol deuterium concentration is also modified.
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