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

Abstract

Non-intrusive detection systems have the potential to characterise materials through various transparent glass and plastic containers. Food and drink adulteration is increasingly problematic, representing a serious health risk as well...

Light scattering of colloidal suspensions: formation and stability in bourbon whiskeys

“…Further, it would be of interest to compare the colloidal properties of American whiskeys from the same distiller and as well as from different distillers. Perhaps the properties of these whiskey colloids (size, PDI, and concentration) can be used for authentication, like chemical differentiation ( 33 ) , optical spectroscopy techniques ( 34 ) , or other emerging microfluidic analytical techniques ( 35 ) . Our measurements also demonstrated an interesting relationship between colloid concentration and maturation.…”

Recent advances in whiskey analysis for authentication, discrimination, and quality control

“…A Raman system with a novel geometry of excitation and collection, exploiting the beam propagation from the axicon lens that results in an annular beam at the bottle surface before focusing within the sample, was developed (Fleming et al., 2020). This facilitated the acquisition of Raman signals from the alcoholic spirit inside the bottle while avoiding the collection of fluorescence signals generated by the bottle container (glass) in a nondestructive manner.…”

“…Chemometric methods can help classify samples, differentiate genuine from counterfeit products, and pro-vide insights into factors contributing to whiskey authentication. One of these methods is PCA, which reduces data dimensionality by identifying significant variations and can reveal clusters or trends among samples (Fleming et al, 2020;Jeleń et al, 2019;Rukosueva et al, 2019). PLS-DA is another widely used chemometric technique for classification tasks.…”

Learning algorithms for identification of whisky using portable Raman spectroscopy

“…Raman spectroscopy has previously been demonstrated on decanted samples in the determination total sugar content, pH levels, grape varieties, geographic origin, and aging duration ( Dos Santos et al, 2018 ; Mandrile et al, 2016 ). This technique is not only capable of classifying whisky brands ( Fleming et al, 2020 ; Ashok et al, 2011 ), but it also has the potential to estimate the concentrations of methanol (indicative of toxicity) and ethanol (a measure of quality) in alcoholic beverages ( Ashok et al, 2013 ). Portable Raman spectroscopy allows for in-field analysis of whisky samples, which can be useful for monitoring the authenticity and quality of the product during production and distribution ( Ellis et al, 2017 , 2019 ; Kiefer and Cromwell, 2017 ).…”