Actual alcohol
Actual alcohol means the number of volumes of pure alcohol contained in 100 volumes of the product at a temperature of 20 °C. The analysis of the actual alcoholic strength by volume serves the control of legal regulations, because many products must have minimum alcohol content. On the other hand, some products like soft drinks or fruit juices have maximum values of the allowed content of alcohol, in these cases the adherence to the limit value can be verified by specific analysis of traces of alcohol.
Furthermore, beverages containing more than 1,2% by volume of alcohol, the actual alcoholic strength by volume has to be declared on the label, so the analysis of the actual alcoholic strength serviced to verify the labelled value.
Total alcohol
Total alcoholic strength by volume means the sum of the actual and potential alcoholic strengths by volume. Potential alcoholic strength by volume means the number of volumes of pure alcohol at a temperature of 20 °C capable of being produced by total fermentation of the sugars contained in 100 volumes of the product at the same temperature. Analysis of total alcoholic strength is recommended for control of legal regulations because for some products like wine exist minimum and maximum values for total alcohol.
- Method
- Limit of detection
- Reason for analysis
- HPLC, NIR, RI, Destillation, NMR
- 0,1 g/l
- Control of legal limits, Label check