Wine Features Related to Safety and Consumer Health: An Integrated Perspective

Abstract

This review presents a global view of the current situation of the scientific knowledge about aspects of wine with possible repercussions (positive or negative) on consumer health and wine safety. The presence in wine of some potential harmful compounds such as phytosanitary products, trace metal compounds, sulfites, and some toxics of microbial origin, such as ochratoxin A, ethyl carbamate, and biogenic amines, is discussed. The different strategies and alternative methodologies that are being carried out to reduce or to avoid the presence of these substances in wines are also discussed. In recent years much work has focused on establishing the scientific explanations for the positive biological effects of some wine compounds. In this review, we also examine the latest knowledge regarding wine and health, focusing on two types of compounds that have been related to the positive effects of moderate wine consumption, such as phenolic compounds and bioactive peptides.

Keywords:

• Wine
• phytosanitary products
• trace metal compounds
• sulfur dioxide
• Ochratoxin A
• ethyl carbamate
• biogenic amines
• phenolic compounds
• peptides

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to AGL2006–04514, PET2007_0134, and CSD2007–00063 Consolider Ingenio 2010 FUN–C–FOOD Projects (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) and S–505/AGR–0153 ALIBIRD Project (Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid) for the financial support for this work. M.A. P.–B., and M.M. gratefully acknowledge CSIC for their respective research contracts.

This work is dedicated to Prof. M. Carmen Polo, one of the main supporters of the research in Enology at the Institute of Industrial Fermentations (CSIC), and whose guidance is greatly valuable in our daily work.