Technology

EIM-IRMS® - A Missing Link in Isotope Analysis

Certified & Patented Technique

SG Isotech has developed, certified and patented one of a kind technique (Ethanol Isotope Measurement - Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry - EIM-IRMS®) used to determine production practices and certify authenticity and origin of wine, honey and fruit juice products based upon Isotope ratios. 

EIM-IRMS® is the ONLY method in the world capable of determining addition of sugar from C3 based plants during production.

It has also been proven to be significantly faster, more accurate and less expensive than the other techniques used for determining addition of sugar from C4 plants.

It is capable of determining botanical origin by measuring the original product for added sugar and/or water in both known and unknown samples.

One Universal Instrument for all applications

EIMPyro peripheral is a universal instrument that replaces 5 other very expensive individual instruments used for stable isotope testing:

  • NMR Non-targeting method for honey authenticity testing.  EIMPyro is used for honey authenticity determination. For more information go to Technology / Honey Testing
  • NMR ethanol Deuterium based method for wine, fruit juices, strong spirits.  EIMPyro performs analysis of wine, fruit juices, strong spirits, and honey and provides more accurate information without the need for comparison with database and extensive statistical processing. For more information go to Technology / Wine and Strong Spirits Testing or Fruit Juice Testing...
  • If you are interested in what we do and want to learn more don't hesitate to contact us.

One Universal Instrument for all applications

  • Peripherals based on equilibrium techniques which are mainly used for the determination of d18O values in wine and fruit waters. For this procedure SG Isotech developed fully automated OXYPrep apparatus for quantitative extraction of water from beverage drinks. After water extraction by using OXYPrep, samples are simply analyzed on EIMPyro-IRMS which provides information about added water and d18O values in wine or fruit water directly on the Pyro line. For more information about the comparison study between our OXYPrep procedure and standard equilibration technique click here.
  • HPLC peripherals which are coupled to IRMS and used for honey authenticity determination.  EIMPyro gives more accurate results about honey authenticity than the HPLC-IRMS technique which is based on Carbon stable isotope analysis since it can detect the addition of diverse sugar syrups and also the addition of C3 beet invert sugar syrup.  This cannot be detected using the HPLC-IRMS technique.
  • Elemental Analyzers, Pyrolysis based peripherals, and similar devices - EIMPyro has a pyrolysis reactor used in other similar devices. EIMPyro can be upgraded on request to do also preparation of samples for Carbon and Nitrogen measurements.

Results

Results obtained using EIM-IRMS® method for a specific sample are always unique, repeatable, and provide a distinct product fingerprint.  Because of the isotope structure of the sample, it is impossible to counterfeit the test. 

Even though there is no method for uncovering production practices used in strong spirit production, EIM-IRMS® method is able to provide a unique fingerprint, which is impossible to replicate.  This allows for easy product identification, authentication, and differentiation.