Abstract:
A method of determining the content of SO 2 in a beverage product or a food product, such as beer, wine, champagne, fruit juice, etc., the method comprises: extracting a sample of a specific volumetric size of the beverage or food product from the process line, injecting the sample to a sealed sample container defining a specific inner volume exceeding the specific volumetric size of the sample for the generation of a gaseous headspace above the sample within the sealed sample container, allowing the sample to establish in the gaseous headspace a concentration of SO 2 representative of the content of SO 2 of the beverage product, transferring a fraction of the gaseous headspace to an IR measuring apparatus, measuring the content of SO 2 of the fraction of the gaseous headspace by means of the IR measuring apparatus, and determining the content of SO 2 of the beverage product of the basis of the measurement of the content of SO 2 of the fraction of the gaseous headspace, preferably the measurement of the content of SO 2 is performed as a determination of the attenuation of transmission through the fraction at one or more IR wavelengths.