Shelf life of essences with alcohol as a preservative

Hi

I wonder if anybody has any information about determining shelf life of essences which are a mixture of alcohol (40% brandy) and filtered water, at a % of alcohol to water of 10, 20. 33. 40 % 50 %.

Any help of information would be great.

You can either conduct an accelerated shelf life and there are some laboratoreis that may perform this test. This is subjecting the products at elevated temperatures and conducting tests on them.

I feel that this test is not as accurate as if you were to store the samples and conducting tests every month depending on what sort of shelf life you were looking for. you can test for microbiological tests, sensory tests for smell and flavour profile.

I hope this helps.

Dear rubered,

Maybe you can find useful input in the following links:

Food product shelf life

The stability and shelf life of foods

Good luck!
Philip