This Government Decision approves the Regulation establishing reference methods for the analysis of spirit drinks and ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin in the Republic of Moldova. The Regulation aims to ensure that analytical determinations used in official controls and in the resolution of disputes concerning spirit drinks and agricultural ethyl alcohol are carried out using harmonized, scientifically validated methods. The text defines key metrological concepts such as repeatability limit, reproducibility limit and precision, and specifies that the reference methods listed in the annex must be used in official control and in case of disagreement. It sets detailed technical procedures for determining alcoholic strength by volume (including distillation, pycnometry, electronic densimetry and hydrostatic balance), total dry extract by gravimetry, volatile congeners and methanol by gas chromatography, volatile acidity by titration, trans anethole in aniseed flavoured drinks by gas chromatography, glycyrrhizic acid and chalcones in pastis by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), total sugars by HPLC with refractive index detection, egg yolk content in egg liqueurs by photometric determination of phosphorus, and a suite of wood derived compounds by HPLC. It also prescribes the method for determining radiocarbon content in ethanol to distinguish alcohol of fossil origin from alcohol of agricultural origin. For each method, the Regulation describes reagents, apparatus, operating conditions, calculation formulae and performance characteristics (repeatability, reproducibility) based on interlaboratory studies. The Regulation allows the use of alternative analytical methods under the responsibility of the laboratory head, provided their accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility are at least equivalent to the reference methods. Where no reference method is established for certain substances in a given spirit drink, it sets a hierarchy of acceptable methods: internationally or EU validated methods, ISO or national standards, OIV recognized methods, and, failing these, methods approved by an EU Member State or other suitable methods. The National Food Safety Agency is entrusted with overseeing implementation.
Republic of Moldova · 2025-07-02