One of the problems affecting the cork and wine industry. Although corks are not the only source of TCA contamination, the presence of this defect is associated with corks. The development of a technology to avoid the presence of TCA corks in the bottling process would have a positive impact on wine consumers and would increase confidence in the use of this natural capping system.

The proposed system is based on a pain detection technology applied to an electronic nose that allows the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at very low concentrations. The use of this new technology prior to bottling would allow the separation of TCA-affected corks before entering the bottling chain.