Electrospray Ionization FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry Fingerprinting of Scottish Malt Whisky

摘要

Whisky is anything but a simple drink. Different countries have developed different production processes that generate very different varieties. These varieties contain different concentrations of flavour and aroma giving chemical compounds such as aldehydes, esters and phenols. Even the spelling can differ, i.e. "whisky" in the UK, but "whiskey" in Ireland and the USA. Scottish whisky is one of the UK's major export commodities, having a value of ￡3.4bn in 2010. Exports to the USA remain the highest of any country, at ￡430m. Due to the high value, quality and product control are of paramount importance to whisky producers. Furthermore, counterfeiting and manipulation have been observed, and, therefore, proof of origin is also of major interest to distillers and beverage importers. Commercially available samples of Scottish malt whisky, from different regions, have been analysed using electrospray ionization FT-ICR mass spectrometry to demonstrate use of this technique for simple rapid fingerprinting, quality control and proof of authenticity employing a novel, n-dimensional Kendrick defect inference network algorithm, coupled with powerful statistical classification techniques.