Abstract
Spirits are alcoholic beverages commonly consumed in European countries. Their raw materials are diverse and include fruits, cereals, honey, sugar cane, or grape pomace. The main aim of this work is to present and discuss the source, quality control, and legal limits of methanol in spirits produced using fruit and honey spirits. The impact of the raw material, alcoholic fermentation, and the distillation process and aging process on the characteristics and quality of the final distilled beverage are discussed. In addition, a critical view of the legal aspects related to the volatile composition of these distillates, the origin and presence of methanol, and the techniques used for quantification are also described. The methanol levels found in the different types of spirits are those expected based on the specific raw materials of each and, almost in all studies, respect the legal limits.
Highlights
Alcoholic beverages have been consumed since ancient times and possess a social, economic, and cultural role in modern societies
Some spirits are produced after a fermentation process in the presence of peel and other solid parts of the raw material. This is the case of grape mark spirit and some fruit spirits such as arbutus spirit and that can explain the high values shown in Tables 3 and 4
Balcerek et al [114] verified a decrease in the concentration of methanol in the majority of samples during the aging time with alternative aging processes applied to plum spirits
Summary
Alcoholic beverages have been consumed since ancient times and possess a social, economic, and cultural role in modern societies. Since they naturally contain some alcohols that can be harmful to human health, legal requirements establishing their maximum limits and good manufacturing practices have been developed. An alcohol with an odor similar to that of ethanol, has been described to exist in low concentrations in the human organism and occurs naturally at a low level in most alcoholic beverages, without conferring health risk [1]. This review is mainly focused on the impact that the raw material, the alcoholic fermentation, the distillation processes, and the aging process have on the characteristics and quality of the final beverage, namely in the methanol content. A critical view of the legal aspects related to the origin, presence, and quantification techniques of methanol and its effect on human health is presented and discussed
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