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THE FATE OF THE SULPHUR CONTENT OF MALATHION WHEN APPLIED TO BARLEY USED TO PRODUCE MALT WHISKY
Author(s) -
Thomas K. P.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of the institute of brewing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.523
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2050-0416
pISSN - 0046-9750
DOI - 10.1002/j.2050-0416.1987.tb04469.x
Subject(s) - malathion , sulfur , chemistry , toxicology , fermentation , distilled water , food science , biology , agronomy , pesticide , chromatography , organic chemistry
The use of malathion to protect malting barley from infestation by insects led to fears that malt whisky could be tainted by odorous sulphur compounds such as mercaptans derived from the malathion. Laboratory scale experiments in which barley was treated with sulphur‐35 radio‐labelled malathion, showed that the majority of the sulphur from the malathion was lost in the early stages of processing and that none penetrated to the final distilled spirit. Treatment of malt with the radio‐labelled malathion showed that although the majority of the sulphur from the malathion was lost after the infusion and fermentation stages, a small percentage was found in the distilled spirit. However, re‐use of the final infusion liquor as the first liquor on the next batch of malt as is common practice, could lead to a slight risk of an accumulation of sulphur compounds until equilibrium is reached.