Identification of romanian wine adullteration from Vrancea county

Abstract

Consumers, regulators, and the food industry increasingly require that foods comply not only with the
label descriptions of food content, but also with information regarding the food origin. For example, the
wine industry has a long history of labelling wines based on varietal, regional, or age (vintage) - related
properties. However, regulatory agencies are now beginning to require methods to confirm this label
information. Wine retailers are also facing voluntary or mandatory labelling requirements that will
indicate regional or country-of-origin, species and/or varietal information. As a result, development of
reliable analytical methods to confirm the authenticity of the label information is needed. The
adulteration of wine is usually accomplished by addition of alcohol, water, dyes and aromas to wine of
minor commercial value. As these wines are usually produced with inadequate conditions of hygiene,
they become of high risk for the human health. Another risk for the consumer of adulterated wines is
the ingestion of products elaborated of raw materials not under control evidence. The aim of this study
was to identify the adulterated wines obtained in vineyards of Vrancea County by the private and local
producers during the time period of 2006-2008. From the 913 wine samples analysed it was noticed that
the cheap wines are frequently adulterated. The trend of wine adulterations from Vrancea County had a
decreasing value from 2006 (70.3%) to 2008 (35.1%). The decreasing of the adulterated wines from
2006 to 2008 is probably due to the application of Romanian legislative regulations on wine quality
level.