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A Novel Method for the Determination of the Ethanol Content in Soy Sauce by Full Evaporation Headspace Gas Chromatography

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Abstract

A full evaporation headspace gas chromatographic (HSGC) method is described for rapid determination of ethanol in soy sauce. The results demonstrated that a near-complete mass transfer of ethanol in the soy sauce sample to the vapor phase (headspace) was achieved within 2 min at 105 °C when a very small (≤40 μL) sample was added to a 20-mL headspace sample vial. The ethanol in the vapor phase was then determined by HSGC using a flame ionization detector. The results showed that the method has an excellent measurement precision (relative standard deviation <0.41 %) and accuracy (recovery = 99.85 ± 1.85 %) for ethanol quantification in soy sauce samples. The method requires no sample pretreatment, so it is a simple, rapid, and sensitive method for the accurate quantification of ethanol content in soy sauce and suitable for applications in food industry.

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 31100438 and 21006034) and the State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering Program (201154) for sponsoring the research.

Compliance with Ethics Requirements

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Conflict of Interest

Mengru Liu declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Hailong Li declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Huaiyu Zhan declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Industrial Technology Research Institute, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Mengru Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Hailong Li & Huaiyu Zhan

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  1. Mengru Liu
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  2. Hailong Li
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  3. Huaiyu Zhan
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Correspondence to Hailong Li.

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Liu, M., Li, H. & Zhan, H. A Novel Method for the Determination of the Ethanol Content in Soy Sauce by Full Evaporation Headspace Gas Chromatography. Food Anal. Methods 7, 1043–1046 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-013-9711-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-013-9711-8

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