ANALYTICAL STRATEGIES TO CONFIRM SCOTCH WHISKEY AUTHENTICITY

Analytical methods are required by trading standards and regulatory au thorities to confirm the authenticity of Scotch whisky brands. The cha racteristics of Scotch whisky are strongly influenced by the cereals u sed in fermentation and by distillation, maturation and blending regim es. This leads to characteristic analytical profiles for various conge ners, which can be used as reference points in authenticity analysis. Scotch whisky higher-alcohol profiles for specific brands were shown t o be very consistent over many production batches and so their gas-chr omatographic determination, together with the presence of other specif ic congeners, offered an effective approach to authenticity analysis. Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry followed by multivariate analysis of the r esulting mass spectra enabled non-authentic samples to be discriminate d from the authentic product, Hence, an increasingly sophisticated por tfolio of analytical strategies are available in order to confirm bran d authenticity.