Formaldehyde added to foreign beer (purported)

 

There have been reports or rumors that some brands of beer made outside the US contain a large amount of formaldehyde. I ran GC analyses on some and found none above the method detection limit. I communicated with the AOAC Referee for standard analysis procedures for alcohol beverages (S. Dugar) and he passed along some useful information on analytical methods. Later while researching the topic I did surprisingly find a reference about this; however I don't think this is commonly practiced nowdays.

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Here is a more recent survey. None was found in beer above the method detection limit.

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Chemical deterioration in beverages

 Monoterpenes. Aldehydes. Pigments. Nutrasweet.

Bacterial spoilage in beverages (non-LAB)

Lactic acid bacteria spoilage in beverages

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Mold spoilage in beverages

Mold spoilage has been seen mostly in sports drinks and flavored drinks, also in fruit juices, and rarely in carbonated beverages where some species can tolerate and break down the preservatives benzoic and sorbic acids.

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Yeast spoilage in beverages

 There's often alcohol and CO2 production (but not always). Here is some additional information.

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Late eluters on GC (& GC-MS)

 Trilaurin, decabromodiphenyl ether, petroleum waxes (after the sterols, tocopherols, triterpenes)

Fusel alcohols, congeners, Strecker degradation

 Fusel alcohols, congeners, Strecker degradation

Found during analysis of spoiled food products; amenable to GC-MS

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Vanadium in water

For awhile it was part of my job to review results of water analysis for metals by ICP. I noticed that Vanadium was not detected in most water samples, and was surprised to see elevated levels in other samples. I researched where the Vanadium could come from, and for any known analytical artifacts or method interferences.

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