Thermal Desorption-Vocus Enables Online Nondestructive Quantification of 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole in Cork Stoppers below the Perception Threshold

2,4,6-Trichloroanisole (TCA) contamination of wine determines huge economic losses for the wine industry estimated to amount to several billion dollars yearly. Over 50 years of studies have determined that this problem is often caused by TCA contamination of the cork stopper, which releases TCA into the wine. The human threshold for TCA is extremely low. A wine contaminated by 1-2 ng/L TCA can be perceived as tainted. Contaminations with <0.5 ng/L TCA are commonly considered negligible and are not perceivable. The possibility of prescreening cork stoppers for TCA contamination would be an enormous advantage. Therefore, the demand for a fast, nondestructive method capable of quantifying the TCA contamination in cork stoppers is impelling. Vastly used analytical methods have so far struggled to provide a fast and reliable solution, whereas sensory analysis by trained panelists is expensive and time-consuming. Here we propose a novel approach based on chemical ionization-time-of-flight (CI-TOF) mass spectrometry employing the "Vocus"ion source and ion-molecule reactor. The technique proved capable of nondestructively quantifying TCA contamination in a single cork stopper in 3 s, with a limit of quantification below the perception threshold. A real test on the industrial scale, quantifying TCA contamination in more than 10000 cork stoppers in a few hours is presented, representing the largest data set of TCA analysis on cork stoppers within the literature and proving the possibility to apply the technique in an industrial environment. The correlation with standard methods for releasable TCA quantification is also discussed.