The Analysis of Vodka: A Review Paper

Vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Poland, Russia and other Eastern European countries, made from ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin that has been produced via fermentation of potatoes, grains or other agricultural products. Despite distillation and multiple filtering, it is not possible to produce 100 % ethanol. The solution with a minimum ethanol content of 96 %, which is used to produce vodkas, also contains trace amounts of other compounds such as, esters, aldehydes, higher alcohols, methanol, acetates, acetic acid and fusel oil. Regarding that fact, it is very important to carry on research on the analysis of the composition and verifying the authenticity of the produced vodkas. This paper summarizes the studies of vodka composition and verifying the authenticity and detection of falsified products. It also includes the methods for analysing vodkas, such as: using gas, ion and liquid chromatography coupled with different types of detectors, electronic nose, electronic tongue, conductivity measurements, isotope analysis, atomic absorption spectroscopy, near infrared spectroscopy, spectrofluorometry and mass spectrometry. In some cases, the use of chemometric methods and preparation techniques were also described.