6A Amino Acids and Biogenic Amines 179
Therefore, in some wines it may be interesting to control the formation of amines
by undesirable bacteria.
Generally, most studies in the literature agree that there are slight variations in
biogenic amine concentrations, corresponding to a slight decrease or stabilization
of these compounds during wine storage. Biogenic amines may be broken down to
other compounds by oxidase type enzymes that may be present in some bacteria.
Other factors of wine aging could also play an important role inthe accumulation of
biogenic amines. These include wine filtration using diatoms that can adsorb amino
acids and cationic proteins at their surface, affecting changes in biogenic amine
content during aging. On the other hand, the use of different clarifiers and enological
coadjuvants, especially bentonite and polyvinylpirrolidone (PVPP), among others,
at the dose used during winemaking, affects the final concentration of amines, since
these treatments are able to adsorb certain biogenic amines.
It has also been shown that the type of oak used to make the barrel (Ameri-
can, French, etc.) used for wine aging does not affect the accumulation of biogenic
amines in the final product (Jim ́enez-Moreno et al. 2003). However, the type of
container used for malolactic fermentation seems to affect the final contents of bio-
genic amines. Significantly higher mean concentrations of biogenic amines were
detected in wines undergoing malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks com-
pared to those in which this process was carried out in oak barrels (Alcaide-Hidalgo
et al. 2007), suggesting that components of the wood, mainly the phenolic com-
pounds, may influence the production of biogenic amines by lactic acid bacteria
(Garc ́ıa-Ruiz et al. 2008a). Curiously, it has also been shown that some alternative
aging techniques, based on the use of wood chips or enological tannins, may have
an effect, depending on the product and the dose, by reducing the biogenic amine
content of the wine (Garc ́ıa-Ruiz et al. 2008b).
Another important aspect from a technological perspective was to study the pres-
ence of biogenic amines and how they are related to the ecology and diversity of
lactic acid bacteria during the industrial manufacture of biologically aged wines
from different Spanish wine cellars (Moreno-Arribas and Polo 2008). The concen-
trations of biogenic amines detected in the biologically aged wines analyzed were
low, especially when compared with other types of wines, such as red wines, which
is possibly due to the low levels of amino acids detected in these wines during
the biological ageing. Although only a low incidence and population of lactic acid
bacteria were detected, this made a clear metabolic contribution to wine quality; not
only to degradation of the malic acid, but also to the production of biogenic amines.
6A.3.4 Analytical Tools to Control the Presence of Biogenic
Amines in Wine
Analysis of biogenic amines, individually or simultaneously, is important because
of their potential to be applied as indicators of food spoilage or authenticity. The
two main problems encountered with amine determination in food products in
general, and especially in wine, are the complexity of the matrix and their low