Investigation and correction of the interference of ethanol, sugar and phenols on dissolved oxygen measurement in wine

• Dissolved oxygen measurements were performed with four high-performance systems.
• Ethanol, sugar and phenol influence were analysed in model wines.
• These commercial systems yield errors that underestimate DO content by up to 28%.
• A compensation value (CV) is proposed for the error made by each device.
• These errors were reduced by CV in 50–82% in model wines and 77% in real wines.

The dissolved oxygen in wine is routinely measured to control and monitor various oenological processes. The availability of devices based on different technologies and features allows a user to select a device that best meets their needs. However, grape must and wine samples each exhibit a complex composition that varies with time, which, along with atmospheric conditions, makes it necessary to evaluate the effects of these factors on dissolved oxygen measurements. This work evaluates the effects that ethanol, sugar, and phenols have on dissolved oxygen measurements in a model and real wine. The results suggest that significant errors are made in all studied systems and that the response of each device is different. Therefore, a compensation value was developed to take into account the sample composition. A compensation value was proposed to minimise the error made by each device based on the ethanol and sugar contents of the measured liquid. The best results are those obtained after using the compensation value to correct the data from the Pyro-Mini device. In all cases, errors made in DO measurements by optical systems were reduced by 50–82% by applying the compensation value for synthetic wines and 45–100% for real wines.

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