Microbial stabilisation of white wine by filtration through silica microparticles functionalised with natural antimicrobials

During wine production and storage, undesired effects can appear mainly due to the microbiological activity of the present microorganisms leading to economic losses. Wine stabilisation is needed for controlling the unwanted microbiological activity to improve wine safety and final quality. Nowadays, a plethora of viticultural and technological solutions is available but, in some cases, the stabilisation process changes the wine sensory profile. The aim of this study was the development of filter aids functionalised with phenolic compounds (PHE) with enhanced antimicrobial properties. The filters’ removal capability was evaluated using white wine inoculated with Acetobacter aceti, Lactobacillus plantarum, Dekkera bruxellensis, Zygosaccharomyces bailii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Wine was filtered through PHE-coated filters and the microbial load was determined by plate count. The influence of filtration on the physicochemical wine parameters was also assessed. The removal capacity results showed the PHE-functionalised filters were capable of reducing 3 logarithmic values, being eugenol the most effective compound. The results evidenced different influence of filtration on wine properties according to the immobilised PHE showing that eugenol-functionalised supports had a very low impact on physicochemical parameters. Thus our results support the relevance of using antimicrobial-coated filters at different stages of the winemaking process for wine microbiological stabilisation.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación and FEDER-EU (Project RTI 2018-101599-B-C21 and Project PID 2019-108722RB-C31). M.R-R. acknowledges the Generalitat Valenciana for her postdoctoral fellowship (APOSTD/2019/118) and E.G-R. is supported by the Sara Borrell Program (CD18CIII/00007), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.

Peer reviewed