Mineral composition of organic and conventional white wines from Italy

Abstract

Despite of the increased interest of consumers for organic agro-food products and of the growing demand for organic wines, scientific literature reports a limited number of studies aimed to evaluate the chemical composition of organic wine with respect to conventional wine in terms of major and trace metals. In the present study the concentrations of 19 elements (Al, As, B, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sr, V, and Zn) were determined in samples of white wines from Italy, conventionally and organically produced. No significant difference in the mineral composition was found between the two groups, except for Ni, which showed a higher concentration in organic wines. By comparing our data with data from literature it can be pointed out that there is no agreement among the results presented in the different studies referring to comparisons between organically and conventionally produced wines, concluding that the mineral composition of wines depends on factors different from organic/conventional production method.

Keywords

• Chemistry
• Environmental science
• Food science
• ICP-OES
• Major elements
• Trace elements