Multielement stable isotope ratio analysis of glycerol to determine its origin in wine

The adulteration of wine with glycerol is considered to be a problem in European wine-producing countries. The latest control methods are mainly based on the detection of impurities from commercial products, but suffer from the raising efficiency of the purification processes. As there is little chance of being able to identify glycerol from different sources on the basis of a method which uses only one isotope, a multielement approach was tested. Glycerol from wine showed the lowest relative enrichment with D, mainly in position C-2, a relatively high 18O content, and very negative δ13C values, which significantly correlated with those of ethanol from the same wines. The isotopic data of glycerol samples from different sources were in agreement with those given by indices of origin (impurities). These data allowed us to identify the origin of these glycerol samples, i.e. whether they were produced industrially or synthesised by animals or plants. Glycerol of plant origin was most similar to glycerol found in wine. The combination of several isotopic data by discriminance analysis yielded clusters of data obtained from glycerol samples of similar origin. Taking into account the characteristics of possible mixtures, proof that wine has been adulterated depends on the origin and isotope levels of the added compound. This study showed that it is possible to prove that wine has been adulterated with glycerol from other sources when the latter is present at a concentration of 15% of the total glycerol content.