New handheld device detects fake booze while it’s still in bottle

These devices are commercially available but usually used for security, screening and pharmaceutical analysis. The latest version, developed at the university, is the first time such a handheld tool is being used for a food or beverage product, the university says on its website. (Representational Image)

Researchers have developed a handheld SORS (spatially offset Raman spectroscopy) device that can detect fake spirits, such as vodka and whiskey, while still in their bottles, the University of Manchester has announced.
SORS devices work by using ‘an optical approach’ where lasers are directed through the glass, enabling the isolation of chemically-rich information within the spirits.

These devices are commercially available but usually used for security, screening and pharmaceutical analysis. The latest version, developed at the university, is the first time such a handheld tool is being used for a food or beverage product, the university says on its website.

“Food and beverage counterfeiting comes with the very real potential for serious health, economic and social consequences, especially when it comes to alcohol products,” the website quotes lead researcher Professor Roy Goodacre, from the university’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.

The team tested the gadget on around 150 well-known brands of Scotch whisky, rum, gin and vodka in closed glass containers, including 40 counterfeit products. As well as detecting the contents of fake alcohol, the researchers could also discriminate between multiple well-known Scotch whisky brands and detect different levels of alcohol. The researchers have described their device in an article in Nature.

(Adapted from a news post on University of Manchester website)