A comparative study of official and chromatographic methods for the determination of aldehydes and carboxylic acids in alcoholic beverages is reported. The data are based on the analyses of thirty five spirits. Regarding the determination of the total content of aldehydes and acids, both chromatographic and official methods exhibit similar accuracy and reproducibility. However, only the chromatographic methods allow identification and quantification of the components of each homologous series. The proposed methodologies using gas and liquid chromatography are easy to handle, fast and more sensitive than the official methods, being also applicable to colored samples.
spirits; aldehydes; acids; analysis
