Determination of total chloroanisoles in different kinds of cork stoppers

This paper deals with the application of a new headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method developed in order to analyse the total amount of chloroanisoles in different kinds of cork stoppers (natural, agglomerated and sparkling wine stoppers). This parameter must be determined because these compounds can migrate from cork to wine giving it unpleasant musty taint and, therefore, undermine its organoleptic quality. Unlike the releasable amount of chloroanisoles, the total amount of chloroanisoles has no dependence of the method used for its determination so it can be used as a quality control parameter. The application of this method allowed the simultaneous determination of 2,4-dichloroanisole, 2,6-dichloroanisole, 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, 2,3,4,6-tetrachloroanisole and 2,3,4,5,6-pentachloroanisole.