Discrimination of producing area of Chinese Tongshan kaoliang spirit using electronic nose sensing characteristics combined with the chemometrics methods

In the ancient history of the Yue Nation, the Chinese Tongshan kaoliang spirit (CTKS) has been one of the most popular liquor in the last 2,500 years. The most common fraudulent practice for the commercialization of CTKS is to produce and sell adulterated spirit from different geographical origins. In this study, the use of GC-flash electronic nose (EN) technique combined with chemometrics analysis has proven to provide a rapid tool for the discrimination of CTKS from different geographical origins. The discriminant models were developed by using principal component analysis (PCA), and discriminant factor analysis (DFA). In addition, the volatile organic matters of CTKS were also investigated to find out the difference between samples from varied origins and adulterated liquor. The results demonstrated that the EN technique combined with chemometrics methods could be used to fingerprinting techniques to protect the fame of the prestigious CTKS and to enable its authentication.