Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, School of Chemistry, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK.
Scotch Whisky Research Institute, Research Avenue North, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AP, UK.
Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 21;7(1):12082. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12263-0.
Major food adulteration incidents occur with alarming frequency and are episodic, with the latest incident, involving the adulteration of meat from 21 producers in Brazil supplied to 60 other countries, reinforcing this view. Food fraud and counterfeiting involves all types of foods, feed, beverages, and packaging, with the potential for serious health, as well as significant economic and social impacts. In the spirit drinks sector, counterfeiters often 'recycle' used genuine packaging, or employ good quality simulants. To prove that suspect products are non-authentic ideally requires accurate, sensitive, analysis of the complex chemical composition while still in its packaging. This has yet to be achieved. Here, we have developed handheld spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) for the first time in a food or beverage product, and demonstrate the potential for rapid in situ through-container analysis; achieving unequivocal detection of multiple chemical markers known for their use in the adulteration and counterfeiting of Scotch whisky, and other spirit drinks. We demonstrate that it is possible to detect a total of 10 denaturants/additives in extremely low concentrations without any contact with the sample; discriminate between and within multiple well-known Scotch whisky brands, and detect methanol concentrations well below the maximum human tolerable level.
重大食品掺假事件频繁发生且具有偶发性，最近一起事件涉及来自巴西 21 家生产商的掺假肉类供应给 60 个其他国家，这进一步证实了这一观点。食品欺诈和假冒涉及所有类型的食品、饲料、饮料和包装，可能对健康造成严重影响，同时还会产生重大的经济和社会影响。在烈酒行业，造假者经常“回收”用过的正品包装，或使用高质量的模拟物。要证明可疑产品不是真品，理想情况下需要在包装完好的情况下对复杂的化学成分进行准确、灵敏的分析。但目前尚未实现这一点。在这里，我们首次在食品或饮料产品中开发了手持式空间偏移拉曼光谱（SORS），并展示了通过容器进行快速原位分析的潜力；实现了对多种化学标志物的明确检测，这些标志物用于掺假和假冒苏格兰威士忌和其他烈酒。我们证明，即使在不接触样品的情况下，也可以检测到浓度极低的总共 10 种变性剂/添加剂；能够区分多个知名苏格兰威士忌品牌之间和内部的差异，并检测出甲醇浓度远低于人类可耐受的最高水平。
