Removal of biogenic amines from hydroalcoholic solutions by functionalized silica

Mitigation of microbial nitrogen-derived metabolic hazards as a driver for safer alcoholic beverage choices: An evidence-based review and future perspectives

Alcoholic beverages have been enjoyed worldwide as hedonistic commodities for thousands of years. The unique quality and flavor are attributed to the rich microbiota and nutritional materials involved in fermentation. However, the metabolism of these microbiota can also introduce toxic compounds into foods. Nitrogen-derived metabolic hazards (NMH) are toxic metabolic hazards produced by microorganisms metabolizing nitrogen sources that can contaminate alcoholic beverages during fermentation and processing. NMH contamination poses a risk to dietary safety and human health without effective preventive strategies. Existing literature has primarily focused on investigating the causes of NMH formation, detection methods, and abatement techniques for NMH in fermentation end-products. Devising effective process regulation strategies represents a major challenge for the alcoholic beverage industry considering our current lack of understanding regarding the processes whereby NMH are generated, real-time and online detection, and the high degradation rate after NMH formation. This review summarizes the types and mechanisms of nitrogenous hazard contamination, the potential risk points, and the analytical techniques to detect NMH contamination. We discussed the changing patterns of NMH contamination and effective strategies to prevent contamination at different stages in the production of alcoholic beverages. Moreover, we also discussed the advanced technologies and methods to control NMH contamination in alcoholic beverages based on intelligent monitoring, synthetic ecology, and computational assistance. Overall, this review highlights the risks of NMH contamination during alcoholic beverage production and proposes promising strategies that could be adopted to eliminate the risk of NMH contamination.

Removal of biogenic amines from wines by chemisorption on functionalized silica and effects on other wine components

The effectiveness of several functionalized silica materials (cation-exchange materials) for the removal of biogenic amines from wines, and the effects on other wine components and organoleptic characteristics were evaluated. Results have shown that mesoporous silica material bi-functionalized with phosphonic and sulfonic acids allowed the removal of histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, spermine and spermidine from wines, although the dose must be adapted for each wine according to the removal requirements and wine characteristics. A plus of the adsorbent developed is that it can be recovered and re-used for at least 3 treatments. Immediately following the treatments, a decrease in the levels of linear ethyl esters (ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate and ethyl decanoate) was observed, although these levels were re-equilibrated after several days reducing this undesired side effect. A slight, but perceptible, effect on wine color was observed, probably due to the slight decrease in the pH of the wine produced by the treatments. On the basis of the sensory analysis that focused only on the aroma of the wines, the proposed technique would be more adequate for wines aged in barrels than for young wines.