**Validation of Rapid Enzymatic Quantification of Acetic Acid in Vinegar on Automated Spectrophotometric System**

**Irene Dini 1,\* , Ritamaria Di Lorenzo <sup>1</sup> , Antonello Senatore <sup>2</sup> , Daniele Coppola <sup>2</sup> and Sonia Laneri <sup>1</sup>**


Received: 9 May 2020; Accepted: 4 June 2020; Published: 9 June 2020

**Abstract:** Vinegar is produced from the fermentation of agricultural materials and diluted acetic acid (diluted with water to 4–30% by volume) via sequential ethanol and acetic acid fermentation. The concentration of acetic acid must be measured during vinegar production. A Community method for analyzing acetic acid in vinegar is a non-specific method based on the assumption that the total acid concentration of the vinegar is attributable to the acetic acid. It consists of titration with a strong base in the presence of an indicator. This test is laborious and has a time-consuming character. In this work, a highly specific automated enzymatic method was validated, for the first time, to quantify the acetic acid in the wine vinegar, in terms of linearity, precision, repeatability, and uncertainty measurement. The results were compared to the Community method of analysis. Regression coefficient 1 and the normal distribution of residuals in the ANOVA test confirmed the method's linearity. LLOD (0.946 ppm) and LLOQ (2.00 ppm) defined the method's sensitivity. The results of the tested and the Community methods, linearly distributed in the Shapiro–Wilk test, confirmed the method's repeatability. The few anomalous data in the Huber test were due to random errors. The high selectivity of the enzymatic method, which exclusively measures acetic acid concentration, determined the significant differences between the two tests, examined in the accuracy determination. The enzymatic method can be considered applicable since its precision and uncertainty were lower than the Community method values (relative percentage deviations = 10%). The enzymatic method compared to the Community method reduces the analysis time and the risk of errors due to operators (avoid pipetting errors and wrong calculations), minimizes solvent and the sample consumption and guarantees assay quality through method standardization.

**Keywords:** vinegar; automatized method; quantification

#### **1. Introduction**

In the European Member States, products obtained by the fermentation of agricultural materials or by the dilution with water of acetic acid are marketed under the name "vinegar" [1]. According to the raw material used in production, there are many types of vinegar: wine, cider, fruit, malt, malt distillate, spirit, cereal, honey, and whey vinegar. Wine vinegar is widely used as a seasoning, food preservative, and acidifier. Traditional production needs maturation for a long time in the wood to obtain a high acetic degree. Two stages of fermentation lead to the production of wine vinegar. In the first step, the yeasts, generally Saccharomyces, convert the fermentable sugars into ethanol. In the second phase, the bacteria

oxidize the ethanol to acetic acid [2]. In Italy, three types of wine vinegar are produced: white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar. The latter is obtained from fresh grapes, concentrated by a slow heating process (to 1/3 of its original volume), fermented by yeasts (*Zygosaccaharomyces*) and bacteria (*Gluconobacter*), and subsequently refined in wooden barrels (25 years) [3]. Acetic acid is monitored during the acetic fermentation process. A Community method for the analysis of acetic acid consists of direct titration with sodium hydroxide in the presence of phenolphthalein [4]. This method is not selective; it determines the total acidity of the vinegar and attributes it to the content of acetic acid. Titration is an analytical methodology that uses color to measure the quantity of substances. The visual identification of the endpoint can lead to quantification errors. Therefore, accuracy, sampling frequency, and time expenditure are difficulties generally associated with manual titrations. The alternative methods proposed to determine acetic acid in vinegar are spectrophotometry with a fiber optic sensor [5], a titration system with colorimetry (λ480 nm) [6] or an ATR-FT-IR detector, a chemometric test [7], capillary electrophoresis or ion exclusion chromatography with conductimetric detection, [8,9] and liquid chromatography and gas chromatography [10,11]. In this work, we propose the validation of an automated enzymatic method to identify and quantify acetic acid in vinegar. The automated analyzer was designed to disperse the reagents and samples in the cuvette, incubate the samples at a controlled temperature, read the absorbance in the UV-visible spectrum, and calculate the concentrations of the selected molecules using a calibration curve. The highly selective enzymatic reaction allows the detection of acetic acid in spectrum fields without interference. Following regulatory requirements, the validation of the method is essential to establish data traceability and avoid incorrect quantification, which could have economic consequences and damage the reputation of the laboratories. The validation exercise is expensive and time-consuming. It would be desirable for the scientific community to spend more time validating advanced analytical methods for food quality control [12] to eliminate test repetitions and avoid wasting time.

### **2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Reagents*

Enzytec acetic acid Cod. E2580 was purchased from R-Biopharm AG (Darmstadt, Germany). Distilled water was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Milan, Italy). Potassium hydrogen phthalate and ethanol were purchased from Carlo-Erba (Milan, Italy).

#### *2.2. Samples Preparation*

Three commercial vinegar types were tested: white, red, and balsamic wine vinegar. Samples were diluted 1:125 before analyses.

#### *2.3. Apparatus*

The analyzer iCubio iMagic M9 was used and run with full automation for the enzymatic assay for acetic acid determination. It automatically pipetted reagents and samples into the cuvette, allowed incubation at a controlled temperature, read absorbance at the specific wavelength, and calculated the concentration of the analytes with a calibration curve. The parameters used in the automated photometric systems were temperature, 37 ◦C; wavelengths, 340 nm and 415 nm (bichromatic); and optical path, 1 cm.

#### *2.4. Reference Procedure*

Commercial vinegar samples were analyzed by titration to determine the acetic acid content following the Community reference method [12]. A NaOH solution, normalized with potassium hydrogen phthalate (ACS), was gradually added to 5 mL of the vinegar solution. Complete neutralization was indicated by color changes in 2% phenolphthalein solutions in ethanol. Triplicate analyses were carried out. The average of the three analyses was used as the reference value. The mean standard error (pooled standard deviation divided by the average acidity content) was 0.32%.
