Reverse osmosis influence over the content of metals and organic acids in low alcoholic beverages

Wine is defined as an alcoholic beverage resulted from fermentation of grape must, having ethanol content higher than 8.5% (v/v). Wine consumption has health benefits related to the high concentration of polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant activity and cardiovascular protection effects. However, the alcohol content restricts wine consumption, but wines with low-alcohol content can be obtained with the help of the dealcoholisation process, after it was produced through alcoholic fermentation. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the organic acid concentration, metal content and other physical-chemical parameters of low alcoholic beverages obtained from grape must by a process which involves reverse osmosis, mixing in a variable ratio the permeate and concentrate and then fermentation. For the experiments, a Muscat Ottonel grape must from Iaşi vineyard was used. There were ten variants of beverages (wines) with low alcoholic concentration, by mixing known quantities of the two phases resulting from the reverse osmosis process. These beverages (wines) had an alcoholic concentration starting from 2.5% (v/v) in the first variant, up to 7% (v/v) in the tenth variant. Alcoholic concentration varies for each variant by 0.5% (v/v). After fermentation in 50 L stainless steel tanks, the samples were filtered with 0.45μm sterile membrane and bottled in 0.75 L glass bottles. After 2 months of storage at constant temperature, the beverage samples were analyzed to determine the metal content (AAS method), organic acids concentration (HPLC method), and other physical-chemical characteristics (OIV standard methods). The results obtained indicate that the very complex physical-chemical composition of the low alcoholic beverages analyzed is influenced by the specific chemical composition of a given grape must, as well as by the use of products obtained from reverse osmosis.