Issue 24, 2024

Handheld methanol detector for beverage analysis: interlaboratory validation

Abstract

Methanol is a toxic alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages as a natural byproduct of fermentation or added intentionally to counterfeits to increase profit. To ensure consumer safety, many countries and the EU have established strict legislation limits for methanol content. Methanol concentration is mostly detected by laboratory instrumentation since mobile devices for routine on-site testing of beverages in distilleries, at border stations or even at home are not available. Here, we validated a handheld methanol detector for beverage analysis in an ISO 5725 interlaboratory trial: a total of 119 measurements were performed by 17 independent participants (distilleries, universities, authorities, and competence centers) from six countries on samples with relevant methanol concentrations (0.1, 1.5 vol%). The detector was based on a microporous separation filter and a nanostructured gas sensor allowing on-site measurement of methanol down to 0.01 vol% (in the liquid) within only 2 min by laymen. The detector showed excellent repeatability (<5.4%), reproducibility (<9.5%) and small bias (<0.012 vol%). Additional measurements on various methanol-spiked alcoholic beverages (whisky, rum, gin, vodka, tequila, port, sherry, liqueur) indicated that the detector is not interfered by environmental temperature and spirit composition, featuring excellent linearity (R2 > 0.99) down to methanol concentrations of 0.01 vol%. This device has been recently commercialized (Alivion Spark M-20) with comparable accuracy to the gold-standard gas chromatography and can be readily applied for final product inspection, intake control of raw materials or to identify toxic counterfeit products.

Graphical abstract: Handheld methanol detector for beverage analysis: interlaboratory validation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Cax 2024
Accepted
03 Qas 2024
First published
04 Qas 2024

Anal. Methods, 2024,16, 3859-3866

Handheld methanol detector for beverage analysis: interlaboratory validation

J. van den Broek, S. D. Keller, I. Goodall, K. Parish-Virtue, C. Bauer-Christoph, J. Fuchs, D. Tsipi, A. T. Güntner, T. Blum, J. Mathurin, M. G. Steiger, R. Shirvani, M. Gössinger, M. Graf, P. Anderhub, D. Z'graggen, C. Hüsser, B. Faigle and A. Agapios, Anal. Methods, 2024, 16, 3859 DOI: 10.1039/D4AY00919C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements