A study of the relationships among acidity, sugar and furanic compound concentrations in set of casks for Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale of Reggio Emilia by multivariate techniques

"Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" (ABT) is gaining increasing attention due to its peculiar characteristics, not only within the production area. A first approach to understanding the complex ageing process was performed by studying ABT furanic compounds, quantified by HPLC: hydroxymethylfurfural, furoic acid, furfural, and 5-acetoxymethylfurfural (HMF, FA, Fal, AMFA). Also, other parameters, expressing the acidic and sugar contents (pH, total acidity and°Brix), were quantified. Furanic compounds arise during the must concentration process. Moreover, they tend to rise on ageing, as a consequence of the water loss during the process. However, due to the great reactivity of these substances, which rapidly evolve into other compounds, differences in the accumulation kinetics are likely. While the separate analyses of the single variables did not lead to any significant contribution in the understanding of the phenomena involved in the product transformation, principal component analysis showed a common trend on ageing for all the studied sets. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.