Managing Your Wine Fermentation to Reduce the Risk of Biogenic Amine Formation

Anita Yolandi Smit,Lynn Engelbrecht,Maret Du Toit

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2012.00076

Abstract

Biogenic amines are nitrogenous organic compounds produced in wine from amino acid precursors mainly by microbial decarboxylation. The concentration of biogenic amines that can potentially be produced is dependent on the amount of amino acid precursors in the medium, the presence of decarboxylase positive microorganisms and conditions that enable microbial or biochemical activity such as the addition of nutrients to support the inoculated starter cultures for alcoholic and malolactic fermentation (MLF). MLF can be conducted using co-inoculation or an inoculation after the completion of alcoholic fermentation that may also affect the level of biogenic amines in wine. This study focused on the impact of the addition of complex commercial yeast and bacterial nutrients and the use of different MLF inoculation scenarios on the production of biogenic amines in wine. Results showed that the addition of complex nutrients to real grape must could potentially increase histamine concentrations in wine. The same experiment in synthetic grape must showed a similar trend for putrescine and cadaverine. The effect of different MLF inoculation scenarios was examined in two cultivars, Pinotage and Shiraz. Conflicting results was obtained. In the Shiraz, co-inoculation resulted in lower biogenic amine concentrations after MLF compared to before MLF, while the concentration was higher in the Pinotage. However, the production of biogenic amines was affected more by the presence of decarboxylase positive lactic acid bacteria than by the addition of complex nutrients or the inoculation scenario.

Highlights

Biogenic amines are basic nitrogenous compounds produced in wine mainly through the decarboxylation of amino acids by yeasts or lactic acid bacteria (LAB)
The concentration of biogenic amines that can potentially be produced in wine largely depends on the abundance of amino acid precursors in the medium, the presence of decarboxylase positive microorganisms and wine parameters such as pH, alcohol, and sulfur dioxide that will impact the growth of microbes (Smit et al, 2008; Moreno-Arribas et al, 2010)
Due to the small volumes used in small scale winemaking, it is possible that the inherent heterogeneity in a product such as complex nutrients could have caused the discrepancy in treatment duplicates

Summary

Introduction

Biogenic amines are basic nitrogenous compounds produced in wine mainly through the decarboxylation of amino acids by yeasts or lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Aging of wine on yeast lees involves autolyzing yeast cells that release vitamins and nitrogenous compounds into the wine. The latter may include amino acids that are the precursors of biogenic amines (Smit and Du Toit, 2011). The yeasts and LAB responsible for wine fermentations have certain basic nitrogen nutrient requirements. Yeasts can synthesize all required nitrogen compounds, including amino acids, from ammonium. Because ammonium alone does not meet all the nutritional requirements of yeast, many wine yeast manufacturers recommend the use of complex yeast nutrients that include a nitrogen supplement (González-Marco et al, 2006; HernándezOrte et al, 2006). Because ammonium alone does not meet all the nutritional requirements of yeast, many wine yeast manufacturers recommend the use of complex yeast nutrients that include a nitrogen supplement (González-Marco et al, 2006; HernándezOrte et al, 2006). Bach et al (2011) have shown that the addition of yeast nitrogen compounds leads to an increase in the total level of biogenic amines in wine

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