Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria

Background. In the present study, the migration of elements from and to bentonites after processing Chardonnay white wine from the Danube Plain region, Bulgaria, was investigated.
Materials and methods. Sixteen of the most common brands and types (natural, activated, sodium, calcium, sodium-calcium) of bentonites available on the Bulgarian market were selected. Inductively coupled plasmaoptical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), flame atomic emission spectrometry (FAES) and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) were used for element content determination.
Results. For some elements (Al, Ca, Cr, Fe, Hg, P, Pb and Si), an increase in their concentration compared to the untreated wine was reported in most cases. For others (B, Cu, Li, Mg, Mn, Ni and Zn), the changes in concentration were more often not significant. Only the K content decreased as a result of treatment with all studied bentonites.
Conclusion. It was possible to conclude that bentonite treatment of wines leads to different changes in the analyzed wine. It is quite possible that with a different dose of bentonite application, results that deviate from those described above would be obtained. This is to be the subject of further research.