Determination of alcohols in various fermented food matrices using gas chromatography-flame ionization detector for halal certification

In this study, an analytical method for the determination of alcohols by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection was applied to fermented foods. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.79 and 2.40 mg/kg for methanol, 0.55 and 1.66 mg/kg for ethanol, 0.51 and 1.56 mg/kg for n-propanol, 0.35 and 1.05 mg/kg for n-butanol, and 0.38 and 1.16 mg/kg for n-pentanol, respectively. The recoveries from the matrices of gochujang, soy sauce, and kimchi were 93.80-102.03%, 93.27-99.69% and 89.06-102.17%, respectively, and the corresponding intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations were below 5.33%, 5.35% and 4.10%. In 95 fermented foods, ethanol showed the highest mean, median and maximum values among the five alcohols. The detection rate of ethanol was 86.3% among all samples and 100% in gochujang and gochujang-based sauces. A total of 22 samples had an alcohol content above 0.5%, of which 16 were gochujang.