Global launch for wine testing scheme
The world’s most thorough wine proficiency testing scheme is now available to testing laboratories across the globe, following a successful first round of testing in Italy.
The new Fapas Wine Proficiency Tests, developed in partnership with the Italian Wine Federation and StarEcotronics, provide testing laboratories with access to an ongoing quality assurance tool for evaluating performance.
The tests span the range of red wine, white wine and sparkling wine, and cover more than 60 analytes including regular alcohol content and acidity, as well as alcohol-related congeners and quality indexes including colour, sugars, sulphur dioxide, heavy metals and nutritional elements.
“The global wine market is anticipated to reach a global consumption of more than 30 billion litres by 2020,” says Mark Sykes, scientific adviser of proficiency testing for Fapas. “However, the prospect of greater consumption of wine is driving competition in the industry which could lead to cost cutting activities that could impact on the overall quality of the product.
“It is becoming increasingly important that wine testing laboratories have access to a robust wine proficiency testing scheme that provides confidence in laboratory equipment, methods and staff, and assurance that the laboratory is delivering the quality results demanded by customers, accreditation bodies and managers.”
