Characterisation of white vinegars of different sources with artificial neural networks

Wine and cider vinegars currently attract growing interest from consumers, giving rise to a consequent increase in supply. A full appreciation of their quality is only possible, however, through recognition of their superior quality when compared with vinegars produced from raw materials of inferior quality. Therefore, it is necessary to pinpoint the parameters that define the quality of these products. Chemico-physical and sensory analysis has been used to draw up artificial neural networks (ANNs), on the basis of a vast sampling of vinegars from various countries, produced from a variety of raw materials, that was already subjected to multivariate statistical analysis. Among the chemical parameters, polyalcohols and other elements such as pH, tartaric acid and proline proved to be highly reliable, whereas other volatile substances and the results of sensory analysis were not very discriminating and could not be used to re-classify samples of unknown origin. The positive results obtained indicate that ANNs are a powerful mathematical tool, since they can be used to construct models that predict the botanical origin of the product and to re-classify samples of unknown origin, without any initial restrictive hypothesis.