Alcohol and spirit drinks
Integrity issues
There are three main types of integrity issue on alcohol & spirit drinks:
- non-compliance with the regulatory reference standards (e.g. alcohol content, sugars)
- unpermitted addition of undeclared compounds, such as flavours, dyes, organic acids, sweeteners and/or preservatives
- mislabelling with false declaration of botanical origin and/or spirit category and/or Brand. The aim of this adulteration is to give premium price and value to products with low quality.
Potential threat to public health
Methanol occurs naturally in most alcoholic beverages at levels without any danger to public health. However, there are many recorded incidents of its harmful presence in counterfeit spirit drinks. Its presence is most likely to have been introduced to the illicit beverage by a counterfeiter who hopes to profit from methyl alcohol’s lower cost compared to ethyl alcohol.
To preserve Alcohol and Spirit reputation as well as consumer health, monitor their integrity through analytical testing
Our expertise
Integrity & Authenticity testing of alcohols & spirits were at the origin of Eurofins. The first laboratory was founded in 1987 to market the SNIF-NMR® technology. This innovative solution has been recognized as an official method by the European Union and the OIV to control the botanical origin of ethanol. Since several decades, Eurofins companies continue to support Alcohol and Spirit producers, with the commitment to better serve you and to reply to all your issues with our very wide portfolio of testing.
Statistical review
FAIL assessment on Eurofins company report means that the product is not marketable according to:
- EU regulation 2019/787 for spirits,
- Regulation 1169/2011 on labelling
- And/or any other legal definition or limits
Disclaimer: Non compliance rates presented here are global and may not reflect accurately the market situation in each country but they can be used as qualitative indications for major risks for on a worldwide basis
Non compliance rates observed for spirit samples analysed (all tests) between 2017 and 2021
Eurofins Network Offer
| Testing requests | Methods |
|---|---|
|
Botanical origin control |
Stable Isotopes testing (SNIF-NMR and IRMS) |
|
Carbon dating |
Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) |
|
Control of wood barrel ageing |
Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) |
|
Volatile compounds (typical components, Off-flavours) |
Gas Chromatography coupled with Flame Ionisation Detection (GC-FID) or Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) |
|
Identify and quantify the major and minor components such as alcohol content, dry extract, density, pH, sugars, gases, acids.. |
Composition analyses |
FLYERS
Wines & Spirits Testing - Flyer EN
FOODINTEGRITY HANDBOOK
Eurofins is partner of FoodIntegrity Handbook, a useful companion written by nearly 50 experts in food authenticity
🔎 Find the Spirits Chapter here
