Grape Pomace Fibres as a Sustainable Fining Agent to Ensure Red Wine Safety: A First Approach in a Continuous System

TL;DR

This study shows grape pomace fibers can safely filter red wine in a continuous system, reducing harmful substances like pesticides and tannins efficiently.

Contribution

The novelty lies in demonstrating grape pomace fibers' effectiveness in a continuous filtration system for wine safety.

Findings

Grape pomace fibers reduced ochratoxin A concentration by about 50% in a continuous system.

One fiber outperformed static conditions in reducing pesticides in wine.

Fibers reduced tannin levels without significantly affecting wine color.

Abstract

Grape pomace is the largest by-product in the oenological industry, and in recent years, there have been multiple attempts to turn it into a high-value product, such as a fining agent. However, most of these attempts have usually been conducted with low volumes of wine, and/or in static conditions, using a long contact time between the fibre and wine. To speed up the fining process, this study evaluated the effectiveness of three pomace fibres and a commercial fibre in improving the safety of a young red wine, previously contaminated with ochratoxin A, histamine, and various pesticides, using a continuous filtration system. All the pomace fibres were capable of reducing the OTA concentration by around 50%, and one of the tested fibres exhibited a strong ability to decrease most of the pesticides present in the wine, with the results being even better than when this fibre was used in static conditions. All the tested fibres similarly reduced the tannin concentration of the wines, without having a major impact in the colour index. These results prove that pomace grape fibres are an effective fining agent suitable for use in a continuous filtration system, allowing for a reduction in the fining time from days to hours.

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