DEUTERIUM HYDROGEN MEASUREMENTS IN WINES AND FRUIT JUICES BY PLATINUM-CATALYZED EQUILIBRATION METHOD

Isotopic analysis is currently applied for detecting watering and ille gal addition of exogenous sugars in wines, fruit juices and other food stuffs, In the particular case of detection of watering, the determina tion of oxygen and deuterium isotope ratios is suitable, Until now, de uterium measurement has rarely been carried out routinely because of t echnical difficulties, The two usual methods are based on reduction of water with zinc or uranium, However, they present some inconvenience, originating mainly from the handling of the catalyst and/or the prepa ration of the samples, which restricts their application to specialize d laboratories, We have investigated the applicability and the potenti al offered by a new method based on equilibration of the samples with hydrogen gas using a platinum catalyst, and present first results obta ined on wines and fruit Juices, Moreover, the possibility of successiv ely measuring hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios on the same aliquot m akes the system very attractive for routine analysis.