No Heavy Metal At Happy Hour! Part 1: Find Out How Flame AA and ICP-OES Can Be Used to Measure Major and Minor Metals to Ensure the Quality of Adult Beverages

The measurement of metals, both essential and toxic, in adult beverages is required to ensure quality, safety, and compliance with national and international regulations for consumption and export.

Sources of metals are raw materials, processing and equipment, aging, storage, bottling, packaging, and adulteration.

From a quality standpoint, the presence of metals negatively impacts organoleptic properties and causes turbidity, haze, precipitation, metallic taste, and browning. However, positive effects include enhanced flavor and acceleration of the fermentation process.

For human health, moderate consumption of adult beverages may contribute to daily dietary intake of essential metals. Some metals, such as Ca and Fe, are nutritional while others (e.g., Cu, Ni, Mn, Cr and Zn) are toxic at higher than threshold concentrations.

In Part 1 of this two-part webinar, find out how flame AA and ICP-OES can be used to measure essential metals in adult beverages. Preparation methods to handle the complex matrices, and the interferences they present during analysis, will be evaluated as well as advantages and limitations of these techniques.

Presenter: Sabrina Antonio (Regional Marketing Manager, Trace Elemental Analysis, North America, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Sabrina has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering and a diverse professional experience ranging from Senior Chemical Engineer and Construction Project Manager at state and local power utilities, analytical instrumentation product and application specialist, and Lead Inorganic Data Auditor for the US EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP). She joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2015 as a Sales Specialist in the Center of Excellence and in 2018 became the Regional Marketing Manager for Trace Elemental Analysis for North America.

Presenter: Mike Mourgas (Application Scientist, Trace Elemental Analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Mike Mourgas has over 20 years of experience in the chemistry and industrial chemistry industry as a research scientist, laboratory manager, and chemist. Mike's professional background includes researching and developing new methods for biological testing to serving as the subject matter expert for the trace metals, wet chemistry, and radiological laboratories at NSF International in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Global responsibilities include leading the global inorganic laboratory training, data reporting and laboratory auditing in countries such as China, Brazil, England, and Peru before transitioning to Thermo Fisher Scientific as a North American Application Scientist for Trace Elemental Analysis.

Presenter: John Schmelzel (Senior Application Scientist, Trace Elemental Analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific)

John started his career in 1989 with Thermo Jarrell Ash supporting AA and ICP-OES. He supported the first CID chip-based spectrometers as well as the first axial-viewed plasmas in the early 1990s. John currently supports ICP-OES and ICP-MS for Thermo Fisher Scientific based in the San Jose, California demo lab.