The Analysis of Volatile Substances and Methanol in Spirit Drinks Using Nexis GC-2060

User Benefits

- Nexis GC-2060 was validated for Commission Regulation (EC) No 2870/2000 for the official control of spirit drinks. - Nexis GC-2060 provides excellent separation, high linearity, and low RSDs for reliable routine throughput. - The Multi-Mode Injection Unit (MMI) demonstrated excellent performance to meet EC 2870/2000 criteria and significantly reduces maintenance-related downtime.

Introduction

The analysis of volatile substances and methanol in spirit drinks is essential for regulatory compliance, quality control and verification of product authenticity. Commission Regulation (EC) No 2870/2000 establishes Community reference methods to ensure harmonized results during official controls and in disputes; gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) is the specified reference technique for quantifying key volatile congeners (aldehydes, higher alcohols, ethyl acetate) and methanol. This application note describes a GC-FID method for these analytes on a Shimadzu Nexis GC-2060, implemented to comply with the Regulation’s requirements and suitable for routine and official-control testing across a range of spirit drink categories. This application note also evaluates Shimadzu Multi-Mode Injection Unit (MMI) operated in split/splitless mode to verify its performance to meet the requirements of the method.

July 29, 2026 GMT