TDLAS: The Laser Spectroscopy That’s Redefining Quality Control in the Beverage Industry

Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) is one of the most significant innovations in recent years in the field of quality control—particularly in the food and beverage sector.

This technology is based on a simple yet highly effective physical principle: the ability of certain gas-phase molecules to absorb light only at specific wavelengths.

By leveraging this property, modern diode lasers—stable, monochromatic, and easily tunable—allow for highly selective and precise measurements of gas presence, partial pressure, and total pressure inside sealed containers. These measurements can even be performed on bottles or containers with partially transparent walls that vary in colour, thickness, and material.

Accurate, Non-Destructive, and Repeatable Measurements

One of TDLAS’s main strengths lies in its optical, non-invasive nature: it requires no direct contact with the gas, nor does it alter the container or the product. This enables non-destructive analysis in the lab and inline without sample preparation. In laboratory settings, the ability to repeat measurements on the same container allows producers to monitor product quality over time. For instance, tracking fermentation processes or changes in ideal storage conditions becomes possible, with a particular focus on preserving organoleptic properties.

Inline Application: Continuous and Reliable Control

Integrating TDLAS technology directly into production lines represents a significant leap forward in quality control. This approach enables real-time measurement of the internal pressure of every single bottle, allowing for the immediate detection of leaks or micro-leaks around the cap. It effectively replaces traditional, costly, and statistically limited destructive sampling methods.

Beyond pressure, TDLAS can also measure the concentration of specific gases such as oxygen. Unwanted oxygen presence especially critical in winemaking but relevant across sectors—can lead to product oxidation, altering taste, colour, and aroma and significantly reducing shelf life.

Field-Proven Use Cases

Bottled Natural Water Sector: Liquid nitrogen is dosed in drops to pressurize the bottle, significantly reducing plastic usage. Inline pressure measurement on 100% of the bottles after capping brings multiple benefits: it prevents deflated containers or faulty caps during palletizing and enables real-time feedback to the nitrogen dosing system.

Wine Sector: TDLAS can measure oxygen concentration in the headspace, ensuring it remains below predefined thresholds. It helps verify the effectiveness of inert gas flushing during capping, preserving the wine’s taste and shelf life by preventing oxidation.

Classic Method Sparkling Wine: The technology allows for 100% inspection of bottles after the second fermentation, right before disgorgement. This inspection ensures that any bottles without completed refermentation are detected, thereby guaranteeing consistent quality and the desired flavor profile in the final product.

Beer Sector: TDLAS detects cap leaks inline with greater precision than traditional methods such as acoustic or visual inspection. It performs a direct internal pressure measurement, unlike acoustic techniques that rely on returning sound waves and suffer from low repeatability due to numerous variables. Vision systems, on the other hand, can only detect visible foam leakage and are ineffective for identifying micro-leaks.

In all these sectors, the direct measurement of internal pressure makes TDLAS highly accurate in detecting even the smallest leaks, significantly enhancing the quality of the final product.

A New Frontier in Quality Control

Thanks to its precision, repeatability, and adaptability, TDLAS is becoming an essential tool for producers aiming to ensure product quality throughout the entire lifecycle—from production to consumption. Its integration into production processes leads to more efficient quality control, reduces waste, and contributes to greater sustainability.

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