Rapid through-container detection of fake spirits and methanol quantification with handheld Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

The spirits drinks industry is of significant global economic importance and a major employer worldwide, and the ability to ensure product authenticity and maintain consumer confidence in these high-value products is absolutely essential.

Through-bottle whisky sensing and classification using Raman spectroscopy in an axicon-based backscattering configuration

“…A major component of distilled spirits is ethanol, with the content usually between 35-50% (alcohol by volume, ABV). This has been the focus of many previous studies, 13,14,18,19 and from our own measurements it is apparent that ethanol is a dominant spectral constituent (Fig. 3) showing the following strong vibrational peaks: C-C stretch at 881 cm À1 , C-O stretch at 1041 and 1080 cm À1 , and CH 2 wagging at 1450 cm À1 .…”

“…One of the major obstacles with through-bottle sensing in this case is that glass is a highly Raman active substance, oen masking regions of interest within the bottle. Studies investigating sealed contents of bottles have primarily focused on the detection of specic food denaturants, 18,19 or the detection of concealed hazardous substances, using alternative Raman congurations such as spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS). [9][10][11]20 Conventional Raman congurations operate with the optical path of the collection light directly overlapping with the excitation laser beam, i.e.…”

Food authentication in real life: How to link nontargeted approaches with routine analytics?

“…Example applications for vibrational spectroscopy methods exist for checking the authenticity of honey [146], fish [147], meat [148][149][150], asparagus [35], as well as maize [151] by near IR (NIR) spectroscopy and for spirits drinks [152] and milk [153,154] by Raman spectroscopy.…”

Characterisation of single malt Scotch Whisky using low powered ultrasound and UV‐Visible spectroscopy

“…Raman spectroscopy, as it measures inelastic scattering in the electron cloud, can detect aliphatic compounds and aromatic rings. Raman spectroscopy has been used successfully to monitor methanol concentration (which is a harmful adulterant in Scotch Whiskies), to determine the cask type that Scotch Whisky was matured in and to perform through bottle analysis to detect fraudulent Scotch Whiskies ( 40, 41 ) . A handheld Raman device was reported in 2017 which can detect 10 additives at low concentrations ( 42 ) .…”