13C and 18O isotopic analysis to determine the origin of L-tartaric acid

Abstract

Due to the ever-increasing amount of attention paid to the 'naturalness' of ingredients in food and beverages by both consumers and controlling authorities, the search for suitable methods for the characterisation of origin is of primary importance. Within the European Community the wine production industry is often faced with the problem of origin control of tartaric acid. This has led to the decision that only L-tartaric acid extracted from grapes (therefore natural) should be used. In order to implement these regulations, a screening of different techniques has been carried out to assess the methodology that best identifies the origin of the tartaric acid. It has already been indicated in previous scientific literature that isotope ratio mass spectrometry is an ideal technique for this type of identification. In this paper we present the results obtained for the measurement of the isotope ratios of carbon-13 and oxygen-18 of natural and synthetic samples of L-tartaric acid considering also natural samples of different geographical origin and years of production. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.